Budget 2026: Sustaining Growth, Testing the Boundaries of Inclusion
The Union Budget 2026 arrives at a delicate economic moment. Global growth remains uneven, geopolitical risks persist, and domestic aspirations for faster development coexist with the need for fiscal restraint. Against this backdrop, the budget opts for continuity over disruption, reinforcing a growth strategy that has defined recent years while cautiously expanding the state’s developmental…
An Expenditure Pattern That Speaks Louder Than Announcements
Budgets often celebrate absolute increases—“the highest-ever allocation” to this or that sector. But what truly reveals a government’s priorities is not how much spending rises in rupees, but how the shares of expenditure evolve over time. Viewed through that lens, the recent expenditure pattern tells a sobering story: education and health remain structurally under-prioritised, even…
Caste as an Institution — Part 2
From lock-in to first install: how India built a social operating system Abstract In Part 1, I argued that caste is not “eternal culture” so much as an institution that became the cheapest social technology available—reducing transaction costs in marriage, hiring, credit and ritual services—and then locking itself in through increasing returns and switching costs.…
India isn’t one economy. It’s four—and 492 seats decide which one wins.
India loves national stories: one GDP number, one growth rate, one “India is rising” headline. But electorally—and economically—that’s a convenient fiction. Because 17 states with more than 10 Lok Sabha seats account for 492 of 543 parliamentary constituencies. In other words: ~91% of India’s political mandate is concentrated in a set of states whose development…
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Indian Political Debate 