Neeraj Hatekar
Mumbai
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Articles by Neeraj Hatekar
The Demographic Dividend Has Turned on Narendra Modi
From India to France, Belgium to the Netherlands, Germany to Switzerland, Albania, Portugal, Spain, Italy, and Argentina, the world witnesses an intercontinental wave of young people revolting against their governments. In Serbia, a students’ movement defeated an authoritarian government in the national elections. While the Serbian students’ movement began two years ago, the youth protests sweeping the world have more or less all come at the same time.
Between Profits and Social Purpose: Is there a Right Path for the Tatas?
In the past few years, the Tata group has been in the news for issues pertaining to governance. A large part of the debate has been about the peculiar ownership of the holding company, where a set of public charitable trusts hold a majority stake.
Why Dharavi Should Not Be “Redeveloped”
The “redevelopment” of Dharavi as a modern, upmarket “planned” urban space is legislatively settled. Yet, on the ground, the process is slow and it faces local resistance. We argue that Dharavi has been misconstrued as a “slum”, whereas in reality it is a dynamic and self-organising space of production of labour-intensive goods. Given its complexity, “planned redevelopment” is very likely to destroy its productive energy.
The Boy-Man Who Beat the Dravidian Model
One of the highlights of the assembly elections in Tamil Nadu that brought the Tamizhaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) to power in May 2026 was the role played by children. Several parents and siblings took to social media to marvel in hushed tones about how the children in their homes pushed them to vote for C. Joseph Vijay. The nature of the chief minister’s appeal to children is intriguing.
With the Modi Aura Dispelled, Hope for a Revival of Democratic Voices
It was all gloom and pessimism before June. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had just wrested West Bengal from the Trinamool Congress and retained Assam. The Election Commission of India (ECI) had unleashed the menace of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls across states. The Supreme Court appeared to approve everything the ECI did and seemed willing to play along with the government. Opposition parties were being broken.
Maharashtra Infrastructure Inequality: Study Exposes Regional Disparities and Poverty Traps
Prosperity and deprivation have coexisted in Maharashtra ever since it was formed. Prosperous districts and cities such as Mumbai, Pune, Thane, and Kolhapur on the western side of the State coexist with the relatively backward regions of Vidarbha and Marathwada. The per capita nominal net domestic district product, a measure of per capita income, shows the degree of disparity.
Maharashtra’s Fields of Despair: Can Farming be Saved?
On March 19, 1986, the sun set on the Karpe family in Yavatmal district, Vidarbha, Maharashtra. Despairing farmer Sahebrao Karpe , consumed by hopelessness, laced their last meal with poison. The chilling note he left behind read: “It is impossible to survive as a farmer.” Despite owning swathes of land, Karpe watched helplessly as his banana and wheat crops withered, deprived of water. The borewell stood useless; the power had been cut off due to unpaid bills.
Maharashtra’s Prosperity Paradox
Maharashtra’s economy dwarfs that of several national economies. In 2023-24, the nominal income of the State was Rs.40,44,251 crore. In dollar terms, at $483.1 billion, Maharashtra’s economy is larger than Nepal’s. Among Indian States, its economy is the largest. As much as 31 per cent of its income comes from industry and 58 per cent from services, with the remaining from agriculture. Banking, finance, insurance, and real-estate services contribute a fifth of its GDP.
What explains the persistent weak demand in the Indian economy?
There has been a great deal of debate about the extent to which the Indian economy has recovered after the Covid-19 pandemic. The first advance estimates of Gross Domestic Product for 2023-’24 announced early in January by the Ministry of Statistics and Planning indeed point to demand side weaknesses in the economy. Private final consumption expenditure is expected to grow at a mere 4.4%, the slowest since 2002-’03, if we ignore the Covid-induced contraction in 2020-’21.
Agrarian distress, sluggish job market: Five charts to understand the roots of the Maratha agitation
Since September, Maharashtra has seen a resurgence in massive protests by the Maratha community demanding reservations in government jobs and educational institutions. The protests escalated after the police baton-charged a group holding a hunger strike in a village in Jalna district in the state’s Marathwada region on September 1. The Marathas are seeking recognition as an Other Backward Classes community, reiterating their demand during the previous wave of protests between 2016 and 2017.
Rethinking Employment and Industrialisation in India
It is well known that the composition of India’s domestically produced output – the gross domestic product (GDP) divided into primary, secondary, and services sectors – has changed faster than the occupational structure of the workforce in those sectors. According to standard wisdom in development economics, these two changes should go more or less hand in hand.
Why It Makes Sense to Leave and Stay Gone : Understanding the Mass Exodus from Mumbai
Understanding the Mass Exodus from Mumbai Why It Makes Sense to Leave and Stay Gone India experienced a mass exodus of informal sector workers who were heading out of cities, bound homewards. Given the paucity of transport infrastructure, this is translating into one of the greatest mass tragedies of post-independence India. This has been rationalised as a combination of people moving out because of a lockdown-induced loss of earnings and irrational fears stoked by the pandemonium.
Counts and Consequences
The unprecedented situation arising from the coronavirus pandemic may appear to be a complete break from the past, a kind of a threshold marking a new epoch. However, one very important strand of continuity in India between the pre-coronavirus era and the current corona times is the diminishing of citizenship rights, a kind of tragic finale of a two-century-old struggle for freedom. The Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) was passed by Parliament in the second week of December last year.
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