Independence Day 2026

Over the last decade, the country has transitioned from one of the fastest-growing emerging economies to an increasingly consequential global actor. This enhanced standing is visible across economic expansion, military modernisation, leadership in technology,...

A dozen years have passed since the first Narendra Modi government came to power. It was an event that, in my view, marked a turning point for the country. I've been studying India for some...

For most of the post-independence era, India was described in the conditional tense as a country of enormous potential, forever ‘emerging’, forever a market of tomorrow. That framing is beginning to look dated. Across...

Every August, the tricolour rises over Red Fort and the nation pauses to measure how far it has come. This year, that measurement feels different. For decades, India was described in the conditional tense...

Over the past decade, India has witnessed a period of significant structural transformation across its economy, technology base and foreign policy.  It has transformed from a fragile economy into the world's fourth-largest, while building...

As the US experiences a decline and the America-led order is being replaced by a multipolar world, India is steadily marking its presence on the global stage. Its economic growth, technological prowess, and growing...

Several decades have passed since India was considered a ‘global power in waiting’, as the world order created after the Second World War was the major factor of the balance and stability in the...

A trip that takes ninety minutes by road in an Indian city, can be covered by a small aircraft in just ten minutes. That gap – between how cities have grown and how people...

On August 15, 2026, as India celebrates the 80th Independence Day, it is important to assess its prominent presence on the global stage. Today, India and Indians are playing a vital role in all...

Every Independence Day invites a national accounting. We measure the distance travelled since 1947 in the familiar currencies of nationhood, output, arms, borders held, poverty pushed back. Honestly, the most consequential shift of the...

Seventy-nine years ago, India declared that it would govern itself — that its fate, its resources, and its voice would belong to no foreign power. That declaration was made with words, courage, and the...

Aristotle, one of the foundational thinkers in Western political thought, believed that change is inevitable. For him, change was not a phenomenon that brought forth instability and chaos; rather, it signified the movement of...

For decades, India was described as a nation of immense potential, a country on the cusp of greatness, yet perpetually categorised as an ‘emerging power’. That narrative is rapidly becoming outdated. The decade ahead...