Latest news with #DebarpitaRoy
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Business Standard
12 hours ago
- Politics
- Business Standard
Best of BS Opinion: Ghosts return when we forget why they were banished
There's a superstition in every family. Some refuse to say the name of a dead relative who brought more harm than good. Some keep a room locked, an old letter unread, a photograph hidden behind a newer one. Not because they want to forget, but because they want to remember right. That is because a ghost must be remembered, precisely so it is not counted among the living and allowed to raise hell again. Let's dive in. On the 50th anniversary of the Emergency, the unnamed ghost is easy to see. June 25, 1975 was not merely a date, it was a descent into sanctioned silence. With habeas corpus gone, opposition crushed, and media blinded, the darkness was not just metaphorical. As memories fade, so too does vigilance. Yet, as our first editorial notes, the legal aftershocks lasted until 2017. The Emergency was not a one-off horror but a recurring lesson in how institutions like the courts, press, and even Parliament, can be turned against the people they are meant to serve. Meanwhile, another spectre lurks in the form of India's demographic dividend. Our second editorial cautions: the window opened in 2019 when the population between 15 and 64 began to dominate the number of children and the elderly, but time is ticking. Without high growth, skilled labour, and meaningful reform in health and education, our advantage could rot into a liability. Like a ghost that once offered promise, but now rattles chains of regret. A K Bhattacharya shows how the Centre's approach to public sector undertakings is shaped by ghosts of past policies, shifting from privatisation dreams to PSU-led capital expenditure. While this approach powered post-Covid recovery, it may not remain sustainable without new funding sources. And in Debarpita Roy's column, the spectre is social exclusion. The PMAY scheme works in small towns, but in India's largest cities, EWS housing plans are haunted by delays, poor design, and worse demand. Until cities prioritise serviced plots and rental reforms over distant, vertical ghettos, the urban poor will remain stuck in the ghost neighbourhoods of failed intentions. Finally, in Kanika Datta's review of 1945: The Reckoning: War, Empire and the Struggle for a New World, the ghost is colonial hypocrisy. Phil Craig revisits WWII's end not as a heroic Allied victory, but a cynical return to empire-building. While flawed in rigour, the book still reminds us that many post-war promises were buried alive, not fulfilled.
Business Standard
18 hours ago
- Business
- Business Standard
Debarpita Roy
Debarpita Roy Developing EWS flats in cities tougher than households building own homes An independent study finds that the long-running Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Urban (PMAY-U) programme has shown the way for addressing this challenge in non-million cities (under 1 million population) Updated On : 24 Jun 2025 | 10:42 PM IST Making every Budget rupee count for cities: Fresh ideas needed for impact The share for urban housing has declined, with new schemes being slow to take off and the focus remaining on completing houses under earlier schemes Updated On : 25 Feb 2025 | 11:06 PM IST
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Business Standard
20 hours ago
- Business
- Business Standard
Developing EWS flats in cities tougher than households building own homes
An independent study finds that the long-running Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Urban (PMAY-U) programme has shown the way for addressing this challenge in non-million cities (under 1 million population) Debarpita Roy Listen to This Article The biggest challenge for India's housing policy has been enabling the development of adequate formal housing for the urban poor and low-income households in the country's million-plus cities. India's urban housing policy bundles these households into the economically weaker section (EWS) income group — defined as households with an annual income of ₹3 lakh or less, and housing programmes of the Union and state governments mostly target this group. This focus is spot on. Empirical studies show that the share of EWS households among inadequately housed households has been increasing — from 96 per cent in 2012, according to the
