India became the world's second-largest steel producer while posting profits well above the rest of Indian manufacturing. A new CSEP study by Shishir Gupta and Rishita Sachdeva tests how much of that is earned, and how much rests on cheap iron ore and tariff walls that could just as easily come down.
2 October 2026
Cities · Urban Environment
A new framework from Assam's town planners argues that city masterplans never quite reach the street. In a crowded square kilometre of central Guwahati, Ward 29 is where that argument is being tested, starting with a monsoon-flooded footpath.
8 September 2026
Transport · Cities
Indian cities have long tracked how fast traffic moves. Pawan Mulukutla argues, drawing on the new Transport Analytics Hub, that the more useful question is whether people can actually get where they need to go.
5 September 2026
Environment · Forests
The reserve needs neither an unquestioned one-kilometer ring nor an undifferentiated ten-kilometer circle. It needs an ESZ that varies in width and follows ecological processes, writes Divya Soman.
28 August 2026
Transport · Cities
Andhra Pradesh has written India's first serious pedestrian policy. What it is missing is the machinery that makes a promise survive a transfer order. Ruchita Bansal writes about the new green shoots of walkability in India.
24 August 2026
Government · E-Govt
As artificial intelligence becomes part of the everyday machinery of governance, oversight cannot stop at whether a system runs. It must follow the entire chain — from the technology's performance, to how officials act on its outputs, to the effect on citizens who depend on the services it touches, write Avani Kapur and Sidharth Santhosh.
20 August 2026
Public Funds · Economy
Indian companies spend roughly Rs.35,000 crores on CSR each year. Government schemes spend far more. Yet evaluation often rewards a story of success over an honest account of what was learned, the struggles that were encountered and what people actually experienced, writes Padmini Ram.
13 August 2026
Children · Education
The protests that unfolded over the last month across India surfaced their anger and disappointment in a system that has rewarded exams and not resilience. Have we done enough for our youth, ponders Gayathri Vasudevan.
2 August 2026
Cities · Government
In our minds, built environments represent modernity, and if we see enough of that in our homes, workplaces and means of commuting, we don't pause to consider how equitable it is. This must change, writes Prem Chandavarkar.
11 March 2025
Environment · Trade
We know surprisingly little about where our stuff comes from and even less about where it goes after we are done using it. And that's making climate change worse, writes Sailee Rane.
22 October 2024
Government · Mining
Apex court ruling comes as a boost to state finances, especially in mineral-rich states. The interpretation of the court in this verdict could also give states more power to raise their own taxes, which been diluted significantly in recent years.
24 August 2024
Consumers · Economy
Encouraging the use of products for as long as possible does more than optimizing the use of natural resources. It can support sustainable innovation and efficiency, and do so without diminishing the profitability of businesses, write Aditi Lokhande and Shekar Prabhakar .
31 January 2023
Economy · Government
Large Indian firms are yet to become global champions. Given the global headwinds, India should focus on improving the competitiveness of these companies so that they can tap into large external markets far more than they have managed so far, say Shishir Gupta and Rishita Sachdeva.
21 January 2023
