Policy UpdateTanvi Nerurkar Introduction India’s rapid urbanisation is reshaping its economy and governance landscape. According to the 2011 Census, around 31% of the population lived in urban areas, contributing over 60% of the country’s GDP. NITI Aayog (2021) and the…
Policy UpdateTanvi Nerurkar Introduction Nearly a decade after the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) introduced the Value Capture Finance (VCF) Policy Framework in 2017, the central policy question has shifted from the theoretical viability of land value capture…
Recognising that efficient energy use and conservation are the most cost-effective ways to meet India's growing energy demand, the Government of India enacted the Energy Conservation Act, 2001. Under the provisions of this Act, the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) was established on 1 March 2002 under the Ministry of Power. The Bureau is headquartered in New Delhi and extends across India.
The fourteen Pacific Island Countries (PICs) occupy less than 0.4% of the world's land area, yet their combined Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZs) cover close to one-fifth of the Earth's surface. Their strategic location astride critical sea lanes, their vast maritime resources, and their fourteen votes in the United Nations General Assembly have transformed a region once considered peripheral into one of the most actively contested diplomatic spaces of the decade. It is in this region that India has built the Forum for India-Pacific Islands Cooperation (FIPIC), its principal institutional vehicle for engagement with the Pacific (ICWA, 2023).
When a 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck southern Turkey and northern Syria on 6 February 2023, killing over 50,000 people and flattening entire cities, India was among the first countries on the ground. Within 12 hours, the Indian Army had assembled rescue teams and relief materials. Within 24 hours, Indian Air Force C-17 aircraft were landing at Adana with National Disaster Response Force personnel, dog squads, and a mobile hospital. India named this mission Operation Dost, "friend" in Turkish, Urdu, and several regional languages, a name that carried deliberate diplomatic meaning.
The Khadi sector occupies a unique place in India's economic and political imagination. Born out of Mahatma Gandhi's vision of rural self-reliance, the hand-spun fabric was once a tool of national resistance; today it survives largely as a niche, low-income occupation for rural spinners and weavers, many of whom earn barely enough to sustain themselves. Traditional charkha spinning has historically offered artisans wages as low as Rs. 140 a day, a figure that reflects both low productivity and the physical toll of manual spinning.
In June 2025, during the Tashkent International Investment Forum (TIIF), India was among the 97 countries that participated in this forum (Global Trade and Technology Council of India, 2025). Active participation by the Global Trade & Technology Council (India) underscored New Delhi's motive to strengthen bilateral ties and invest in key sectors like healthcare, education, textiles, pharmaceuticals, manufacturing and diagnostics.