Policy UpdateDivya Natranjan Background Arunachal Pradesh, India’s largest north-eastern state by area at roughly 84,000 sq km, is also its least densely populated, with a 2011 Census population of about 1.4 million spread across just 17 people per sq km,…
Policy UpdateShalija Singh Background Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) are increasingly shaping public administration, economic activity, education, healthcare, agriculture, and urban development. Their adoption can improve administrative efficiency, enable data-driven decision-making and create new economic opportunities. At the…
Lakshadweep is the smallest Union Territory (UT) in India with an area of 32 sq km, a most remarkable outlier of all the States and Union Territories of India. The Union Territory has 36 islands, consisting of 12 atolls, 3 reefs, 5 submerged banks of which only 10 are inhabited (Kavaratti, Agatti, Amini, Kadmat, Kiltan, Chetlat, Bitra, Andrott, Kalpeni and Minicoy) and are treated as a single uni-district administration. According to Census 2011, Lakshadweep has a population of 64,473, with its literacy rate, since then, having risen to the second highest in the country, at 91.85 percent, and sex ratio at 946 females per 1,000 males. More than 93 percent of the native people are Muslims and the islands (excluding Minicoy) are counted as a tribal area with the maximum percentage of Scheduled Tribe population in all the Union territories.
The Border Area Development Programme (BADP) was launched in 1986-87 by the Government of India to address a structural gap in nation-building
Policy UpdateAyana N K Background Meghalaya, meaning “the abode of clouds,” is a hill state in Northeast India covering about 22,430 sq km. According to the 2011 Census, it has a population of around 29.67 lakh. The state is predominantly…
When the price of essential kitchen items like onions, potatoes, or dal shoots up suddenly, it acts as an immediate financial shock to millions of households in India. For a lower-middle-class or vulnerable family, a sudden spike in vegetable prices means they have to compromise on health, nutrition, or other vital household needs. Historically, regular food grains like rice and wheat have always had a massive safety net managed by the Food Corporation of India (FCI) through the Public Distribution System (PDS). However, highly perishable items—like horticultural vegetables and protein-rich pulses—were left completely at the mercy of unpredictable market forces.
Puducherry is a Union Territory with a distinctive administrative geography. Unlike most states and Union Territories that form one continuous geographical unit, Puducherry consists of four separate regions—Puducherry, Karaikal, Mahe, and Yanam—located along different parts of India's southern coastline.