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India's 7.7 percent GDP growth in FY2025-26 will inevitably dominate headlines, reinforce the government's economic narrative and strengthen the country's claim to being the world's fastest-growing major economy. Yet while the number itself is impressive, perhaps even exceptional by contemporary global standards, it risks obscuring a more consequential reality: India is entering a phase in which preserving growth may prove far more difficult than generating it.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The White Paper tabled in the Kerala Assembly by the VD Satheesan-led United Democratic Front (UDF) Government proclaims from the housetop as it were that the former Left Democratic Front (LDF) alone is to blame for Kerala’s economic woes.

Venezuela’s acting President, Delcy Rodríguez, was in India recently. This was known in advance because, even before the Government of India made any statement on the matter, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio had already announced it during his visit to India. It has now become a common occurrence that the United States makes public statements about what India is going to do in the future, and only afterward does the Indian government speak about it.

After a series of political setbacks since Lok Sabha Election 2024, the meet of the INDIA bloc scheduled to be held at the Constitution Club in New Delhi on June 8 is a significant development, especially when one of its allies DMK has announced to skip the meet, and the BJP has claimed that INDIA bloc is dead and buried, and exists only on paper.

In India's high-stakes corporate world, timing is everything. Sometimes it creates billionaires. Sometimes it destroys them. And occasionally, it raises questions that refuse to go away. The latest controversy involving mining billionaire Anil Agarwal's Vedanta Group, the Enforcement Directorate's (ED) searches under the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA), and Vedanta's bitter challenge to Gautam Adani's acquisition of Jaiprakash Associates Ltd (JAL) has become one such episode.

Trinamool Congress has split. The handiwork of the BJP is discernible in wrecking the outfit to which it was once allied and later turned a bitter political adversary. Inarguably the most significant indication in this regard was accepting Mamata Banerjee as the leader of splinter group now led by Ritabrata Banerjee. But she has been given a hitherto unheard rank of "paramashwadata" or adviser.

The recent trend of growth in trade and economic exchange between India and China is a welcome development, particularly in the context of the deepening Hormuz Crisis consequent upon the US imperialist aggression against Iran and its bullying tactics against other countries. The US began arm-twisting others, particularly the weaker nations, using the tariff tools, aiming to shift its own economic crisis on to others in what has come to be known as the ‘Great Tariff Wars’.

When the country was struggling for independence, the world was grappling with World War II. The people of Bengal were suffering from the tragedy of famine. During that period, on May 25, 1943, writers and artists from various states and princely kingdoms came together in Mumbai to form the Indian People’s Theatre Association (IPTA). In an era marked by war, famine, and political repression, IPTA transformed theatre, music, dance, and cinema into instruments of resistance against fascism, communalism, and poverty. IPTA’s motto is: “The people are the heroes of IPTA.”

Despite strong legal provisions in India, river pollution remains a problem due to weak enforcement, poor coordination and inadequate infrastructure. The water quality of many rivers, such as the Ganga River, has deteriorated due to the increasing demand for water from rivers and other water bodies in the last few years. The situation is expected to be even more serious with the growing impact of climate change.

The preliminary version of the OECD Outlook released on June 3, 2026 has projected the real GDP of India to grow by 6.3% during the FY 2026-27, which is a sharp decline from the robust growth rate of 7.8 per cent year-on-year in the quarter ending in December 2025 (Q3 FY2025–26), easing from 8.4% in the previous quarter. However, it expects only a little improvement in the GDP growth in 2027-28 to 6.4 per cent.