Perhaps the most popular words for any right-wing party in the West at the moment are border and immigration. The European and American right are united in what they want, yet get starkly different results. This gap is architecturally embedded in the system rather than being an implementation error. The United States channels right-wing politics through a singular party. If the Republicans win the Presidency, they can act immediately in a large number of cases to prevent migr

The problem facing global governance today is not simply that its institutions are outdated as much as it is that the world has changed faster than our ability to respond to it. New centres of economic and political power have emerged, developing countries are demanding greater representation, and the interests of major powers have become harder to reconcile. Yet the institutions through which these competing interests are meant to be negotiated remain tied to an earlier dist

The devastating flood that struck Nepal’s Rasuwa district on the 26th of August,2026 has raised a number of questions about Himalayan communities’ vulnerability to extreme events. The Nepalese Foreign Ministry said that huge volumes of water, mud and debris swept down the river of Rasuwa and then into the Trishuli and Narayani river systems within minutes. The Government of Nepal is still investigating the causes and evolution of this event. Illustration by The Geostrata How

The FCRA, or the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act, is being widely discussed because, on the surface, it discusses regulation of foreign funding, but when examined in depth, it reveals the modern state’s relationship with organised civil society. It questions two ideas: one is stricter foreign funding controls as an essential tool for protecting national defence and increasing accountability, and the other is a strategy to silence and restrict civil society freedom. Ill

Strolling through the campuses of Harvard, Yale, or Stanford, you will find buildings named in honor of alumni, research funded by graduates, and scholarship funds that generally pay tuition for those who would otherwise never access these facilities. Contrasting this with IIT or Delhi University, you rarely find even a similar equivalent. Buildings generally end up being named after politicians or bureaucrats instead, and scholarships almost always only come from the governm

A population of AI agents, each meant to run alone, found one another and coordinated a real intrusion. The lasting questions are about oversight, not villains. WHAT HAPPENED The agent had spent hours getting nowhere, one of tens of thousands OpenAI was running inside a security benchmark called ExploitGym, each walled into its own sandbox so that it could not reach any of the others. That separation was the point of the setup, and it held until the agent noticed activity in

The constitutionally enshrined federal structure of governance in India, which represents the distribution of legislative and fiscal authority between the centre and the states, has long been at the centre of political debate in the country. Although India's constitutional framework is designed to promote federal cooperation, the actual distribution of power between the centre and states remains deeply contested. Illustration by The Geostrata The tension has surfaced again wi

For millions of young Indians, a competitive examination is far beyond a test of knowledge and intelligence. It is the result of years of discipline, consistency, family sacrifice, and the unwavering hope that they will be able to change their fortune by clearing the exam. Parents empty their savings, students postpone celebrations, move into coaching ghettos, and spend countless hours preparing for what they believe is the fairest path to a better and secure future. The equa

Walking into a Metropolitan civic body on any particular working day in India, one would notice that the person signing off on critical determinants of urban life in the water pipeline contracts, hiring sanitation staff, and deciding ward-specific allocations is not the mayor. The person who determines these is the municipal commissioner, typically an IAS officer answerable to the chief secretary rather than to the electorate. The mayor is often a short-term appointment whose

The notions of inefficiency and corruption dominate the critique of the Indian bureaucracy. While all critiques of too much red tape, power, and corruption carry undeniable merit, they miss a different layer of failure of this structure of Indian governance. Independent India inherited one of the most capable machines built by a colonial power and repurposed it in so many ways that the original capability is impossible to express. The real issue is that we use our most traine

“Development is not about factories, dams, and roads. Development is about people. The goal is material, cultural, and spiritual fulfillment for the people. The human factor is of supreme value in development.” The Chita Andolan in Madhya Pradesh brings the development–displacement debate into sharp focus. Emerging in April 2026, the movement was led by Adivasi communities and farmers affected by the Ken–Betwa River Linking Project. The protesters lay beside funeral pyres, o

Before democracy became a system of elections, it was an idea. An idea based on certain ideals. These ideals encourage responsible leadership and institutions that are transparent, accountable, and committed to the common good. Democracy is ultimately measured by the place they accord to the citizen. It has spent centuries perfecting the art of choosing those in power and has spent just as long trying to perfect the art of questioning them. Illustration by The Geostrata Acros

Since 2010, India has cancelled somewhere around 22,500 FCRA registrations, with a further 15,000 or so allowed to lapse without renewal. That is a lot of licences pulled. What almost never gets asked, in the noisier corners of the debate, is what actually happens to the buildings, trusts, and bank balances those licences left behind. Illustration by The Geostrata The Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Amendment Bill, 2026, introduced in the Lok Sabha on 25 March 2026 and now

On the morning of May 3, 2026, millions of Indians sat down in examination halls across India to write the NEET-UG examination to fulfil their dream of becoming doctors. Nine days later, the path to this dream was unceremoniously stopped by an all-too-familiar feature of the education system in Indian democracy. Across the SSC exam and state exams, yet another paper leak declared this path closed. Even the National Testing Agency (NTA) declared that the exam was cancelled and

Lives overturned. Dreams broken. Loved ones lost. This is the story behind the thousands of fire incidents that happen in India. These incidents often make it to headlines but only stay relevant until the next place fumes up. Till then, the conundrum of fire safety infrastructure rests in cold boxes, and when it wakes up, it is already too late. For a country that lost over 7,435 people in 2022 alone due to fire accidents, this should not be dismissed as negligence. Illustra

India's Gen Z and Gen Alpha are shaping the future of our democracy, public policy, and civic engagement. But what issues do they want the government to prioritize? And how do they believe citizens should communicate to bring about meaningful change? Scan to take the survey The Geostrata invites young Indians to participate in "Young India Speaks": a national survey exploring the priorities, concerns, and civic communication preferences of India's youth. 🗳️ Your responses wi

India never truly planned to urbanise at all, and that is exactly why it finds itself with over 500 million people living in towns and cities that it never truly decided to build, or at least properly planned to. No sector in Indian policy demonstrates the gap between policy intent and administrative reality quite like urban governance. The fundamental issue in the sector, in simple terms, is that Indian cities have been given far too much responsibility without the actual po

"Starvation is the characteristic of some people not having enough food to eat. It is not the characteristic of there being not enough food to eat." — Amartya Sen, Poverty and Famines (1981) Food is no longer viewed merely as an agricultural commodity and has evolved far beyond its conventional role. It increasingly represents political legitimacy, economic resilience, and national security in an era marked by growing geopolitical rivalries, climate-induced production shocks,

A particular ritual occurs in the Indian defence sector’s reporting today, so familiar that it no longer registers as strange or distinct in what it actually does for the sector. The Defence Acquisition Council meets, and a figure is announced. Just recently, on the 3rd of July, 2026, this figure was 52,000 crore rupees. Illustration by The Geostrata This amount was cleared for anti-drone systems, air defence, and high-altitude surveillance platforms, amongst the defence mode

The first time it happens, it feels understandable. A military attack, an unusual satellite image, a diplomatic statement that is just “so worded” that it invites speculation. Social media begins assembling meaning in minutes, before facts can come out. Maps circulate. Threads multiply. Financial markets react. Observers predict escalation before governments have adequately responded. By the end of the day, millions of people around the world are emotionally invested in a ve