Author: C.P. Rajendran

In late July 2026, 25-year-old government school teacher Srishti Kandhari died by apparent suicide in Doiwala, near Dehradun, roughly eight months after her marriage. Before taking her life, she recorded a 90-second video, sobbing and wiping tears from her face, managing to utter her first words only after 35 seconds. Between sobs, she blurts out: “Everything has become so strange. I have been enduring this for six months… Now I can’t endure it anymore. Their mindset can never change. They keep blaming me for things that happened after our marriage. (Calling me) ‘manhoos, manhoos’ (cursed).” The video ends. Her final…

The Indian government’s ethanol blending programme is being celebrated as a triumph of energy policy, a meteoric rise from a paltry 1.53 per cent blend in 2014 to a mandated 20% (E20) by April 2026, achieved five years ahead of schedule. On paper, the numbers are dazzling: ₹1.9 lakh crore in foreign exchange savings, 930 lakh metric tonnes of CO₂ abated, and over ₹1.6 lakh crore funnelled to farmers. Yet beneath this glossy veneer of statist achievement lies a deeply uncomfortable reality. The programme is not a consumer-driven success story; it is a top-down, supply-side mandate that prioritises disposal of…