2024

On the 135th birth anniversary of first Prime Minister the nation fondly remembers Jawaharlal Nehru as builder of democratic modern India. Pandit Nehru built scientific foundation by establishing iconic national scientific institutions and attempted to use science to change the prevalent mind set to bring socio cultural transformation in the newly liberated backward nation. Remembering his contribution to nation building is necessary especially in current times when active (…)

Abstract
Institutions establish the rules of the game and shape the man-made constraints that help reduce uncertainty. However, social structures play a crucial role in shaping these institutions and how they operate. Institutions that are socially structured have a better chance of surviving and maintaining their momentum. Whether an institution is inclusive or extractive depends on its ability to reflect social realities.
New institutional economics emphasizes the neoclassical (…)

Date: 04.11.2024 The declaration of the recently ended 16th summit of the BRICS (now extended BRICS) has several points for which the developing and least developed countries have been aspiring for many decades. Even though colonization through direct military control by the erstwhile colonial powers has largely ended, the grievances of these countries continue as the imperial powers have evolved new methods to exert their control. Only a few decades ago the possibilities of (…)

I was eleven years old when the news of Jawaharlal Nehru’s death came on 27 May 1964. Shindkheda is a taluka of Dhule district where I had gone to my aunt’s house to spend summer vacation. And my aunt had bought a good radio of Philips company at that time. So, just before 2 o’clock in the afternoon on 27 May 1964, the radio broadcast was suddenly stopped and the news of Jawaharlal Nehru’s death was broadcast. I was shocked to hear it with my own ears.
As it happened some times before (…)

On those evenings the weather stays clear, from her favourite spot on the ’charupadi’, she would watch momentarily the sun go down between the coconut palms in the distance, but today, she kept gazing at the western sky long after the lingering crimson of the day that just went by had faded into yet another starlit night after which, with her cloudy eyes, she browsed through the pages of the party newspaper which chirukandan has been dutifully dropping on her verandah every morning, since (…)

Until some years ago, a familiar although unusual sight at a prominent south Indian temple in Delhi was a middle-aged Sikh gentleman. He was married to a Tamil woman and knew Tamil devotional songs too. He was devoted to the deities in the decades-old shrine.
As it often happens, there were groups among the temple administrators. An influential section took a dislike for the Sikh man. So, one day, the group ousted him as a member of the management committee. What was stated to force him (…)

I. Introduction
The return of the Taliban in August 2021 marked a critical turning point for Afghanistan, especially in the realm of women

[fond noir][blanc]BOOK REVIEWblanc]fond noir]
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A touch of salt
By Anita Agnihotri
Translated by Arunava Sinha
Penguin Books
2024 / 180 pages
ISBN 9780143465812
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Reviewed by Bhavna Harchandani
Anita Agnihotri’s "The Touch of Salt", masterfully translated by Arunava Singh, is a poignant and evocative novel that sheds light on the overlooked lives of salt cultivators in the Little Rann of Kutch, Gujarat. The eleven-chapter book critically examines the historical (…)

[fond noir][blanc]BOOK REVIEWblanc]fond noir]
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Nationalism in the Vernacular: State, Tribes, and the Politics of Peace in Northeast India
by Roluah Puia
Cambridge University Press
2023
ISBN: 9781009346078
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Reviewed by P Kham Sian Muan Zou
Roluahpuia