All this notwithstanding national initiatives such as the POSHAN Abhiyaan to reduce stunting by two percentage points annually, progress is at a notoriously lethargic pace. The latest statistics document that 37 percent of children below the age of five are stunted compared to 38.4 percent in the previous year. This highlights the existence of deep systemic flaws in dealing with child malnutrition.

In August 2025, Mumbai faced the worst floods in 4 days as over 800mm of floodwater rained down on the cityf- worthy of the monthly average. The deluge out wreaked killing more than 10 lakh acres of farmland and 15 deaths even in the state of Maharashtra. This event is another warning of the growing vulnerability of megacities to climate extremes and the need to boost resilience

India is experiencing an accelerated pace of urbanisation. The populations in Brazilian cities are projected to increase to over 60% of the total population by 2027, in comparison to 31% of the total population as recently as 2011. This exponential expansion, as experienced by states such as Kerala which is set to be 96% urbanised by 2036, has put serious strain on existing infrastructure and revealed the failure of funding models. Mirroring this challenge, the Union Budget 2025 announced the radical Urban Challenge Fund (UCF) for urban India, a ₹1 trillion competition-based, innovative and private capital-led effort to modernise cities.

A proposed constitutional amendment has provoked fiery discussions in the Parliament of India, and it was thus referred to a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) on the examination. The Constitution (One Hundred and Thirtieth Amendment) Bill, 2025 as introduced aims to codify a fresh degree of ministerial disqualification.

On the global tax day, the eighth anniversary of GST in India, tax policy response to tobacco has represented the good, the bad and the ugly in achieving the right balance between achieving public health objectives and recognising the economic contributions of an industry and the unintended adverse consequences of excessive tax burden.