Inside India’s Battle to Control the Democracy Narrative
How the Modi government moved from improving its global democracy rankings to redefining democracy itself—turning narrative control into a governance strategy.
How the Modi government moved from improving its global democracy rankings to redefining democracy itself—turning narrative control into a governance strategy.
As the big films grow bigger and the mid-budget films vanish, Hindi cinema is losing its creative heartland—where careers were built, risks were taken, and audiences kept coming back.
The National Clean Air Programme was meant to solve India's air crisis. Instead, it created a measurement system that shows progress on paper while citizens can't breathe.
Under India’s Safe City programme, Lucknow spent nearly a 100 crores from the Nirbhaya Fund on AI cameras. I watched the watchers and traced their gaze, from gleaming control rooms to dusty police stations, hunting for the truth between algorithm and action.
For centuries, it was medicine and spiritual aid—even as it produced charas and ganja. Today, a microscopic measurement of 0.3% stands between profit and prison. As states experiment with legalising cannabis, farmers and entrepreneurs navigate a regulatory maze. The line between nasha and dawai grows hazier.