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India’s Foreign Policy in 2025: From Strategic Confidence to Strategic Caution

December 30, 2025

For India’s foreign policy establishment, 2025 unfolded less as a year of calibrated diplomacy and more as a sequence of shocks that challenged long-held assumptions. From the disruptive return of Donald Trump to the White House to instability in India’s neighbourhood and unending global conflicts, New Delhi found itself reacting more than shaping outcomes. As South Block looks toward 2026, the central task is no longer merely crisis management, but a sober recalibration of expectations in a world defined by volatility rather than order.

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MSMEs in a Volatile Global Economy: Why Budget 2026–27 Must Become a Course Correction

December 30, 2025

As India navigates an era of persistent global trade uncertainty, its micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) stand at a critical crossroads. Once celebrated as engines of employment, exports and entrepreneurship, MSMEs—particularly micro enterprises—are increasingly exposed to forces beyond their control: tariff wars, currency volatility, logistics disruptions and regulatory overload. Their appeal to the Union government ahead of Budget 2026–27 is therefore not merely a plea for relief, but a warning that without recalibrated policy support, India risks hollowing out the very base of its manufacturing and employment pyramid.

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Reforming India’s Nuclear Energy Framework: Promise and Peril of the SHANTI Act

December 30, 2025

India’s nuclear energy sector is at a historic inflection point. With the enactment of the Sustainable Harnessing and Advancement of Nuclear Energy for Transforming India (SHANTI) Act, the country has undertaken its most consequential reform since the Atomic Energy Act of 1962. For six decades, nuclear power in India remained a state monopoly—strategically insulated, but operationally constrained. The SHANTI Act decisively breaks with this legacy by opening the sector to private participation, reforming civil nuclear liability, and seeking convergence with global regulatory norms. Yet, the Act’s transformative potential will depend not on legislative intent alone, but on how unresolved questions of regulation, liability, and pricing are ultimately settled.

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Ending Child Marriage in India: Between National Promise and Local Reality

December 29, 2025

India has committed itself to an ambitious and morally compelling goal: ending child marriage by 2030 under the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. On paper, the country appears to be moving in the right direction. Official data shows a steady decline in the prevalence of child marriage over the past two decades. Yet beneath this encouraging national trend lies a stubborn reality — the practice remains deeply entrenched in specific regions, communities, and socio-economic groups. The persistence of child marriage exposes a critical gap between policy intent and lived experience, raising questions about enforcement, social norms, and the limits of law-driven reform.

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Medical Education, PPPs and Public Health: Evaluating Andhra Pradesh’s New Experiment

December 29, 2025

The Andhra Pradesh government’s proposal to expand medical education through public–private partnerships (PPPs) has ignited a wider debate on the purpose of public policy in health, the future of subsidised medical education, and the risks involved in transferring public health assets to private control. At stake is not merely financing, but the State’s long-term capacity to regulate healthcare delivery, protect equity, and ensure an adequate medical workforce for public service.

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