The view that bureaucracies are bloated with far too many employees preying on taxpayers money is a widely held myth. Research shows how significantly understaffed the Indian state is.

We’re thrilled to launch the first edition of Con-GRA, a conference dedicated to graduate students in the social sciences—particularly economics, political science, and sociology—whose research focuses on contemporary South Asia.

Con-GRA offers a space where emerging scholars can share their work, receive thoughtful feedback, and engage in sustained, interdisciplinary conversations. We approach South Asia not as a regional case but as a site of theoretical innovation, where new questions, methods, and frameworks are emerging across disciplines.

This inaugural edition marks a commitment to building an enduring intellectual home for social science scholars of South Asia.

New York is America’s most cosmopolitan outpost, not its heartland. One must look at what happened elsewhere in the US on 4 November.

The two-decade long reign of Nitish raises an important question: Can governance stripped of politics achieve the goal of radical social transformation?

A new study on urban India reveals that Muslims, Dalits, and tribal communities are denied equal rights and access to public services while upper castes enjoy the best living conditions, with Kochi and chennai standing out as rare examples of inclusive urban equality.

The capacity to live a full life in India's cities is heavily constrained by class, caste and religion.