Long before “corporate social responsibility” became a societal expectation for firms, the Tata Group embedded it as a principle in its operations. When Jamsetji Tata built Jamshedpur around his steel plant in the early 1900s, he specifically instructed planners to leave space for wide roads, parks, land for religious activity, amongst other aspects. The Tatas built the town not as a place for people to work, but rather as a place where their workers could actually live. Succ

Infrastructure has emerged as one of the defining instruments of geopolitical competition in the twenty-first century. Across South Asia, roads, ports, railways, and energy corridors are no longer viewed merely as engines of economic growth; they have become strategic assets capable of reshaping regional influence and security dynamics. Among these, the proposed Teesta River Comprehensive Management and Restoration Project in Bangladesh exemplifies this shift. Illustration b

A drone can carry an advanced camera. A fighter plane can carry advanced weaponry. A satellite can monitor thousands of kilometres of area. However, these systems cannot become powerful on their own. It is their potential in battlefields that becomes dependent more and more on something invisible: the software that integrates sensors and converts data into decisions. Illustration by The Geostrata This is redefining military modernization. For many years, defence capacity had

“ The state is a Leviathan." When Thomas Hobbes wrote this line, he imagined the state as a sovereign so powerful that citizens would surrender their liberty in exchange for order and protection from chaos. It was meant to be a bargain, not a threat. Three centuries later, on the streets of Ranchi, that bargain looked badly frayed. The state did not protect its citizens from disorder. It became the source of it. Students who had simply asked for a fair recruitment exam found

The dispute inside ISRO does not actually revolve around the issue of allowing Indian firms to manufacture rockets. That question was settled years ago. The harder one is how much knowledge accumulated over six decades by the nation should remain with the people, and who will decide that. “The rockets have left the ISRO workshops, but the guidelines for the transfer have not been framed yet”. Illustration by The Geostrata On 4 September, GSLV-F17 placed the EOS-05 satellite i

Before a prayer is spoken, before a hymn is sung, and before a deity is adorned, faith is often worn. What if the first fashion designers of India were not royal courts, luxury maisons, or celebrity couturiers, but temples, saints, artisans, and age-old rituals? It is a question that challenges the way we think about fashion. Today we think of clothing as an expression of personal style or seasonal trends. But fashion in India has never been all about looks. It has been a lan

The Andaman and Nicobar Islands are not just an important strategic outpost for India; rather, their position places India close to the sea routes that connect the Bay of Bengal with Southeast Asia, giving the country a strategic position in the Indo-Pacific region. However, the significance of the islands lies not only in where they are located, but in the increasing capability of India to use the islands for its maritime surveillance, operations, and engagements with the ne

Indian foreign policy is reaching a stage where its relations with the US are too significant to give up but too unclear to stake everything on. New Delhi is strengthening its ties with Russia and China through its involvement in BRICS and the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, while bolstering its partnership with the United States in defence, technology, trade, and the Indo-Pacific region. Illustration by The Geostrata This growing strategic engagement with multiple power c

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

India's Minimum Support Price regime was conceived as insurance against price collapse for farmers to ensure a sustained channel of stable pricing and income. Six decades later, it has changed from insurance into the primary revenue channel itself, and it tells farmers not just what price they'll get, but effectively what is the best choice of crop to grow because the market guarantees you a price you know and can predict without fail. Illustration by The Geostrata And what i

The world has already discovered India's culture. India is still discovering what it can do with it. For thousands of years, yoga has been an inseparable part of India’s civilizational heritage. It is a philosophy based on harmony of mind, body, and spirit rather than a system of physical postures. Similar to Ayurveda, classical arts, spiritual traditions and indigenous knowledge systems, yoga is a model of a worldview that has been formative to Indian society and continues

India undoubtedly has one of the fastest-growing startup ecosystems in the world. However, one must stop and start asking the question of why almost 9 out of 10 startups fail in India. The answer would provide you with a typical checklist of bad unit economics, copied business models, and businesses that scaled and invested capital before finding adequate product-market fit. Illustration by The Geostrata Every single reason is true, but it is not the primary reason. All thes

When a rocket takes off from Sriharikota, millions witness the countdown, ignition, and separation of the craft from its launcher. But those few moments of the launch are the result of many years of effort behind the scenes. There is a team behind each successful mission designing spacecraft, writing code, analysing data, planning trajectories, and preparing for conditions that might never be seen on television screens. Illustration by The Geostrata Among these groups working

The multi-front conflict in the Middle East has brought about a significant geopolitical change, one that is going beyond headlines of price surges and shipping disruptions. The tactical confrontation is in the spotlight, but a much more fundamental structural realignment is taking place in the region of Eurasia. This battle has unwittingly catapulted Asia's two superpowers into a high-stakes, asymmetrical game of chess. In New Delhi, the battle is considered mainly a problem

Thirty years is a long time to have a relationship without showing up. Despite the absence of a prime ministerial visit between 1993 and 2026, India and Slovakia consistently strengthened their diplomatic, defense, and economic partnership. The lack of a high-level visit did not diminish the importance either country attached to the relationship, which continued to grow through sustained engagement across multiple sectors. Modi came to Bratislava in June, and commentaries soo

Human judgement is influenced not only by facts but also by how those facts are presented. The 21st century is an era that has seen transformation in how narratives are created, shared, and consumed. Digital content that reaches global audiences instantly and at an unprecedented scale. In the geopolitical sphere, perceptions of countries have been shaped not by direct experience but by selective framing. The way a country is portrayed influences diplomacy, strategic partnersh

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

As India breaches into the top three economies of the world and rises to become one of the fastest-growing major economies in the world. Such growth is met with energy requirements that have grown exponentially. This growth runs on energy it does not fully control. The country is now the world's third-largest energy consumer, and most of it depends on energy that’s imported. India imports almost 90 percent of its crude oil, and with this number climbing, it has turned into a

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