Maharashtra finally has a government in place after more than a month-long impasse over the government formation, following the declaration of Assembly election results. Signalling the germination of—what is being read as—anti-BJPism in the country ..read more

For the most part of last year, we quite literally went out of print for a bit. With no clarity in the early part of the lockdown as to when normalcy would descend, the publication of the print issue was on the line—and exclusively online—till ..read more

Afghanistan is burning. Right now, as I write these words, Afghanistan is burning.  ..read more

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When Charles Handy’s The Future of Work was published in 1984, it created quite a sensation. Handy has been described as “prophetic” by his admirers, and his books on the nature of employment, the need for different forms of work following the disintegration of full-time employment and the possibilities that opened up for individuals as a result, have been much read and discussed. In fact, even decades later, The Future of Work and his other books remain sources of study.  ..read more

What has fascinated me the most in the 2019 Union Budget is the evocative, if not innovative, use of jingles. Be it “Har Ghar Jal” for universal access to (drinking) water or the use of “Team India with Jan Bhagidari” for minimum government and maximum governance, or “Green Mother Earth and Blue Skies” for the vision of a pollution-free India, who has ever witnessed, let alone conceptualised, such sublime mellifluousness in a mundane accounting statement like the budget document ..read more

Working with print publication in a digital era often makes one feel like an anachronism. In the race to compete with online-only publications that have mushroomed in the last decade, online-first has become the publication model to which many print publications have transitioned. The advent of digital publishing has also brought in a great amount of flexibility, especially for news, media, and opinion publishing in terms of both format and time.  ..read more

We, who have grown up on the fable of the hare and the tortoise, with the moral that slow and steady wins the race, have, over time, stopped believing in this story. So much so that it sounds silly even if one wishes to believe in it. Knowingly or unknowingly, we have imbibed the logic of capitalism that equates speed with efficiency—“the faster, the better”. Being “successful” and winning the race was also the mantra in the hare-tortoise story ..read more

Mahatma Gandhi in his communication with the masses made effective use of both symbols and symbolic language. He used symbols in order to mobilise the masses against both colonial and local configurations of power. In the colonial configuration, he used symbols such as salt, charkha, and khadi in order to mobilise the masses against the British imperialists. He picked up a fistful of salt only to drive home the point that the British were working against the interests of the people of India ..read more

Working with print publication in a digital era often makes one feel like an anachronism. In the race to compete with online-only publications that have mushroomed in the last decade, online-first has become the publication model to which many print publications have transitioned. The advent of digital publishing has also brought in a great amount of flexibility, especially for news, media, and opinion publishing in terms of both format and time.  ..read more