Gold hallmarking in India began as a voluntary certification scheme run by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) in April 2000, allowing jewellers to have their gold articles tested and marked for purity by BIS-recognised centres since it was started by BIS in April 2000 to provide third-party assurance to consumers on the purity of gold jewellery.
Critical minerals have emerged as a strategy priority for the World as we expand our energy transition, advanced manufacturing and defence capabilities. Minerals such as lithium, cobalt, nickel, graphite and rare earth elements (REEs) are essential inputs for electric vehicle batteries, renewable energy technologies, permanent magnets, electronics and semiconductors. Their importance, however, extends beyond their economic value. The concentration of mining, refining and processing capacity in a limited number of countries leaves downstream industries vulnerable to geopolitical disruptions, export restrictions and supply shocks.
Policy UpdateApala Background Mission Vatsalya was built around a single promise. The scheme commits the Government to strengthen the juvenile justice care and protection system with the motto “leave no child behind” (Ministry of Women and Child Development, 2022). For…
Policy UpdateKavin Adithya C.B. Background India stepped into the BRICS presidency in January 2026, focusing on resilience, innovation, cooperation, and sustainability. This theme reflects India’s belief in people-centered approach, often summarized by the phrase “Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam” which means “the world…
Policy UpdateKavin Adithya C.B. Background The XVII BRICS Summit convened in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on July 6-7, 2025, resulting in the Rio de Janeiro Declaration. The summit’s theme, “Strengthening Global South Cooperation for a More Inclusive and Sustainable Governance”…
India has developed a large number of agricultural and farmer-welfare schemes covering income support, crop insurance, irrigation, credit, infrastructure, and allied activities. However, their implementation often involves different ministries, departments, and delivery mechanisms, creating coordination challenges at the district level. One such challenge is the absence of a single district-level mechanism to coordinate multiple agricultural schemes and services.
Jawaharlal Nehru once described India as an ‘ancient palimpsest on which layer upon layer of thought and experience had been written, with no succeeding layer ever wholly erasing what had gone before.’ The National Mission on Cultural Mapping (NMCM) - a Ministry of Culture initiative launched in 2017 to translate India's artisanal & village-level heritage into a national database - takes this Nehruvian idea as its working premise (Ministry of Culture, 2026a). After nearly a decade of the scheme running and roughly 97 percent of its village target reportedly covered, making it a valuable case study in the sustained & data-driven implementation of a large-scale rural mission.(Ministry of Culture, 2026b).