Civil Service Reforms — Issues and Challenges from the FieldNote: This is the text of the speech that I delivered on the occasion of the 17th Civil Services Day at Delhi.Apr 26Apr 26
Whither David? A Short History of the Arab-Israeli Secret War.Review of Ronen Bergman’s Rise and Kill First: The Secret History of Israel’s Targeted AssassinationsOct 25, 2024Oct 25, 2024
The Bureaucrat Who Did Not Change the World: Review of Dr Duvvuri Subbarao’s “Just a Mercenary”.Memoirs of retired Indian bureaucrats are one of the most hackneyed genres. They start with the all too familiar humble beginnings…May 18, 2024May 18, 2024
Unshackling the Indian State: Review of Karthik Muralidharan’s Accelerating India’s DevelopmentGovernments in India are behemoths that most Indians interact with but very few truly understand. Critiques of state capacity in India…Apr 18, 2024A response icon1Apr 18, 2024A response icon1
The Road Less Taken: Reviewing Varun Grover’s All India RankIt is only a few times every year that you get to see a Hindi film with real life characters and not just cardboard cutouts. Varun Grover’s…Feb 25, 2024Feb 25, 2024
Revisiting the question of transferability of land in the Santal Parganas.Disclaimer: The views expressed in this piece are purely personal and do not necessarily express the views of the institutions I am…Jun 22, 2023Jun 22, 2023
The Value of Innovation: Review of Chris Miller’s Chip WarWhat do we think of when we think of technology? Our imagination often conjures images of mobile applications, digital payments and…Feb 6, 2023Feb 6, 2023
Solving inclusion and exclusion errors in beneficiary selection for government schemes…The success of government schemes like Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana, Swachh Bharat Mission and the Public Distribution System have often been…Dec 30, 2022Dec 30, 2022
Masaan RevisitedNote: I happened to revisit this article I wrote six years back when I watched Masaan for the first time. The beauty and the depth of the…Apr 3, 2022Apr 3, 2022
“Hell or High Water” : The story of Sahibganj’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.The following article is the first in a series of what I hope will be three articles based on my experience as a public servant during the…Jun 30, 2021Jun 30, 2021