RajivSpeak

A high-stakes controversy has erupted in the Indian Himalayan Region following the abrupt publication and immediate withdrawal of a major infrastructure tender. The National Hydroelectric Power Corporation (NHPC) issued a public tender notice for the proposed "Chenab-Beas Link Tunnel Project (Link 3)" only to cancel it abruptly just three days later.

As Bangladesh approves a vast new barrage, experts caution that unilateral river engineering is outpacing diplomacy, with potentially severe ecological and geopolitical consequences. In a development that has raised alarm among water security experts, Bangladesh has given the green light to one of the largest river engineering projects in its history: the Padma Barrage . The massive structure, designed to restore water to the country’s drought-prone southwest, comes at a moment when upstream neighbours China and India are also accelerating their own dam-building programmes.

A comprehensive investigative report published by BehanBox and authored by Sarasvati Thuppadolla reveals the pervasive, systemic caste-based discrimination faced by Dalit Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHA) across rural India. Even though India’s one million ASHA workers were collectively honored by the World Health Organization with the Global Health Leaders Award in 2022 for their pivotal role in reducing maternal and infant mortality, their marginalized caste identity frequently dictates the harsh terms of their acceptance by the communities they serve. 

India’s economic growth prospects continue to lead the global stage, but escalating geopolitical tensions are mounting severe inflationary and currency pressures on the nation, according to the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) Chief Economists’ Outlook published in May 2026.  

Currently, I am watching the American serial The Affair . While it offers a very interesting exposure to broken relationships in the United States, in the middle of the tenth episode of the second season its main character, Noah Solloway — divorced from his wife after falling in love with a waitress — has a therapy session with a psychiatrist. Here, Noah, who happens to be a celebrated novelist with two published novels and a third in progress, makes an interesting observation: all great men are not good men.

This blog is in continuation of one of my previous blogs , in which I quoted a retired Gujarat cadre IAS bureaucrat telling me that I ought to stop using the word “Dalit” because it is “derogatory.” He advised me instead to use the “constitutional term, Scheduled Caste (SC).” This was in reference to my earlier story , titled India's Muslims' and Dalits' segregation levels are almost similar to the US Black-White segregation, based on a Chicago study.

When 65-year-old  Jitu Munda  walked into the  Odisha Gramin Bank ’s Malliposhi branch on the afternoon of April 27, carrying a jute sack on his shoulder, no one expected what lay inside. The sack contained the skeletal remains of his sister, Kalra Munda, whom he had buried on January 26.

By Rajiv Shah   The Ahmedabad unit of the People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) has released a detailed field research report titled "Are we not Indians? The Development Politics of Uprooting Citizens and Shattering Lives at  Chandola Lake ," documenting the mass demolitions in the city's periphery that took place between April 27 and May 2, 2025.

  A recent academic study has highlighted how caste and social identity continue to shape employment opportunities, wages and access to secure livelihoods in India, even as the country projects itself as one of the world’s fastest-growing economies. The findings, published in the 2026 Springer volume  Unequal Opportunities: An Analysis of Inequalities in Employment Opportunities Among Different Social Groups in Labor Markets of India , argue that structural discrimination remains embedded in both formal and informal labour markets. 

A comprehensive new study examining 1.5 million urban and rural neighborhoods across India has uncovered deep patterns of residential segregation and systematic inequality in access to public services, with findings that researchers say rival the scale of racial segregation in the United States.

India's ambitious  National Perspective Plan  to interlink 37 rivers — at a cost exceeding Rs 10 lakh crore — has attracted fierce opposition from scientists, environmentalists, and affected communities. Ever since Prime Minister  Narendra Modi  laid the foundation stone for the first major project under this plan, the Ken-Betwa River Link Project (KBRLP), on December 25, 2024, that opposition has only grown louder. 

After I was transferred as the Times of India representative in Gandhinagar, the Gujarat capital, in 1997, one of the many changes I noticed in my interaction with state officialdom and politicians was the kind of courtesies extended to me—even by those I would rarely meet. One such courtesy came in the form of a phrase I knew nothing about:  Micchami Dukkadam .

In its April 2026 South Asia Economic Update , the World Bank identifies India as the primary engine of regional growth, with the economy estimated to have accelerated to 7.6% in fiscal year 2025/26.  This macroeconomic surge, however, exists alongside a highly fragmented labor market where the rise of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and deep-seated inter-state wage disparities—specifically between states like Kerala, Gujarat, and Chhattisgarh—create a complex landscape for the workforce.

A new working paper by University of Cambridge economist Kaivan Munsh  has revealed how centuries-old social structures both boost and constrain business activity. Focusing on a growing body of economic research, the paper suggests that India's caste system—a network of endogamous communities dating back nearly two to four thousand years—plays a powerful and often overlooked role in shaping the country's economy. 

A landmark study , “The mortality burden from COVID in low-income settings: evidence from verbal autopsies in India”, using verbal autopsies of 20,000 deaths reveals that only one-third of India’s pandemic excess mortality was directly caused by SARS-CoV-2. The rest — a hidden toll running into millions — was the collateral damage of a healthcare system brought to its knees. 

A sweeping policy report released by the Foundation for Economic Development (FED) argues that India’s minimum wage regime has become counterproductive, pricing millions of workers out of formal employment and costing the economy an estimated $60 billion in unrealised low-skill exports annually.

A new  National Sample Survey  (NSS) report on  household health consumption  reveals that  private healthcare facilities  account for the majority of  hospitalisations in Gujarat , placing a significant financial burden on families. 

A panel of urban planners, academics and grassroots practitioners has warned that  India’s urban crisis  is increasingly becoming “a crisis of dignity,” driven by deepening inequality, ecological destruction and the growing marginalisation of the urban poor, according to a discussion hosted by the  Balwant Sheth School of Architecture ,  NMIMS University .

Author and legal commentator Gajanan Khergamker has made his  ebook  '10/3: Exile, Empire And War In The Andamans' publicly accessible online, a month after its limited offline digital launch on 10 March 2026. What began as a publication has, in Khergamker's own framing, transformed into a live, evolving research framework — Project 10/3 — inviting participation from researchers, institutions and citizens.

  A perfect storm of geopolitical crisis and policy paralysis is pushing India’s poorest into a devastating double-bind. The ongoing war in Iran has sent shockwaves through global oil markets, and as LPG prices skyrocket and factory slowdowns ripple across urban centers, a massive exodus of migrant workers is underway.  But for millions fleeing the city’s hardships, the safety net of rural employment has all but vanished, leaving them stranded without work or income, says a detailed report prepared by the NREGA Sangharsh Morcha, a coalition of NGOs and unions, quoting individual migrants.