Blog
23/05/2026: Recently while have a dialogue around poverty we were discussing the 2-dimensional nature of measurement and addressing of poverty. This morning’s newspaper story caught my eye as an example of how poverty can be a complex difficult phenomenon to understand in the Indian context. (this is version 2 of this article, the first version was re-written for more contemporary audience placing the story in a larger perspective)Somewhere in the expanding outskirts of Chennai, where the airport lights blink all night over old villages that no longer remember themselves, a sack lay by…
2nd April 2026: "Money is a Demon, Laxmi is a Goddess" - excerpts from the chapters of this book by Vinobha Bhave was read and discussed. Vinobha outlines his vision for Sarvodaya in this compiled book starting with a critical analysis of Communism and leftist position on various issues. He differentiates the leftist position against that of the Gandhian one and highlights how by being non-violent, inclusive, labour dignity driven and decentralized the later is far more superior than the State Capitalistic Communism of modern times. His assertions and analysis are proven in time as the…
“I know you have thought about this a lot, can you give it a shape and help design a curriculum for IKS for teachers?”, was a question posed by a head of prestigious Teacher’s training college recently. I started with a disclaimer, “Indian Knowledge Systems (IKS) is a term of contradiction. What constitutes the understanding of ‘Indian’, ‘Knowledge’ and ‘System’ as used today are all defined by the Western society from the 15th century onwards. IKS as it is currently used and articulated is either a continuation or a reaction to the colonial construct of these concepts".Let me…
What is the Future Institution in the Development sector?NGOs (of Civil Society organizations if you prefer the American term for it) in India have had the toughest decade in existence since Independence. Five key factors have impacted the sector which many are unable to cope with. These are -the changes in the regulatory ecosystemraising expectation of the newer generation of employeesimpact and entry of market forces in the development sectorfast changing needs of the communities they work with andthe ecosystem of funding and finance available for development organizationRegulatory…
Development that was a mainstay in many global forum - whether it be about poverty alleviation, healthcare, climate change adoption and education, no longer amongst the top headlines in the world in 2026. Since the beginning of 2026, almost the entire headlines has been on war and trade, as though these are the global priorities and not climate change and healthcare. Even Indian media's outlook since the beginning of this year has been on the budget for defense forces, our persistent chest thumping on AI leadership, and implications of US trade tariff on India and the overall politics…
Blaming the education system is one of well fed elite India's pastime. Despite major social leader of the past century (Swami Vivekananda, Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore, Sri Aurobindo, Mahatma Gandhi, and J. Krishnamurthy, being the prominent ones) trying to reform education in their own way, the challenges of irrelevant and unreliable education quality persist. While the persistent challenge is structural, and each one of the above have tried to change the structure, their followers eventually descend to being content with content modifications. The alternatives to mainstream…