Pooja Shah reports on Indian political parties as institutions — their funding, their networks, their enforcement mechanisms. Her work has set the agenda on digital political warfare and the quiet infrastructures that drive election campaigns.
Recent work
Rahul Gandhi, Vijay Meet in Chennai; Congress Reads Tamil Nadu's New Alliance Map
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi met Tamil Nadu Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay in Chennai on Saturday for an hour of political talks, then shared coffee and tiramisu at a café. The meeting precedes Gandhi's youth outreach event, Chhatron Ki Goonj, and surfaces questions about Congress's alliance calculus in the state ahead of the 2026 assembly election.
IndiGo Flight Hit by Lightning at 17,000 Feet; Nose Damaged, 110 Safe
An IndiGo flight from Patna to Lucknow was struck by lightning at 17,000 feet on October 7, damaging the aircraft's nose. All 110 people on board landed safely. The incident raises routine questions about lightning protection, regulatory oversight, and repair timelines for India's largest domestic carrier.
OMCs Hold Pump Prices Steady as Brent Crude Tops $103
State-owned oil marketing companies left petrol and diesel prices unchanged on October 5 even as Brent crude traded above $103 a barrel and the US-Iran war strained energy supplies. Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru retained rates last seen in June, while private retailer Nayara Energy passed through higher costs. The stability protects households and logistics but compresses OMC margins.
India Asserts Sovereign Energy Choices Amid US Tariff Law on Russian Oil
Union Minister Kirti Vardhan Singh has called new US tariffs unfair and said India will source energy from commercially viable suppliers after Washington signed a sanctions law allowing up to 100% tariffs on Russian oil buyers. The response frames procurement as sovereign commercial choice with direct fuel-price implications.
India Shapes Response as Putin Pitches BRICS Insurance and Grain Market
Putin proposed a BRICS insurance mechanism and a joint grain market at the summit's concluding session, citing Global South needs under external pressure. India, a major wheat producer and rice exporter, has not formally responded, but its domestic food security and insurance regulatory frameworks will shape the outcome.
Modi Recycles SRCC Metaphor as Governance Continuity Takes Centre Stage
Narendra Modi returned to Shri Ram College of Commerce on Saturday and reused the 'half water-half air' phrase he first delivered at the same dais in 2013. The 2013 address was a governance manifesto aimed at young voters. The return reframes the line as a question of delivery, not aspiration.
Cockroach Janata Party Splits: Brahmbhatt Floats CJP-D Against 'Team Kejriwal' Model
Activist Manish Brahmbhatt launched Cockroach Janata Party Democratic on Thursday, charging the original party's founder with forming a 12-member team without consulting volunteers. The split turns a satirical NEET protest movement into a test of internal democracy in a fringe political outfit.
Doomsayers Doomed, India Bloomed: PM Modi Backs 7.8% GDP Print
India's economy grew 7.8% in April-June 2026, up from 6.9% a year earlier, driven by financial, real estate, IT and professional services. The prime minister called the number 'exemplary' and dismissed doomsayers as 'doomed'. The challenge is converting a services-led upswing into broad-based jobs.
Parliamentary Panel Flags 73% School Dropout Rate, Exposing India's Secondary Education Gap
A Parliamentary Standing Committee report has found that nearly 73% of students drop out before completing Class 12, pointing to a structural collapse at the secondary and higher-secondary levels. The committee flagged a sharp decline in the number of schools at these stages relative to primary schools. The finding strikes at the foundation of India's demographic dividend and its 2047 development ambitions.
Sajeeb Wazed's Pakistan Warning and What It Signals for India's Eastern Flank
Sajeeb Wazed Joy, son of former Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, addressed the Foreign Correspondents' Club in New Delhi on August 5, warning that Bangladesh risks becoming a major source of terrorist recruitment comparable to Pakistan. Speaking from Maryland, he questioned the official death toll from the July-August 2024 unrest and raised concerns about an indemnity ordinance passed under Muhammad Yunus's interim government. The warning arrives at a moment when India's hard-won security architecture along its longest land border faces its most serious stress test in two decades.
Willie Walsh at IndiGo: India's Aviation Moment Demands Policy at Pace
Willie Walsh, former IAG chief and ex-IATA Director General, has assumed charge as IndiGo CEO, signalling the carrier's serious intent to compete on intercontinental routes. The appointment is a proof-of-concept moment for India Inc.'s appetite for global C-suite talent — but it places immediate pressure on airport infrastructure, MRO capacity, and bilateral air services frameworks to keep pace with private-sector ambition.
Fake Trading App Fraud Pierces Big Tech's Intermediary Shield in India
A Pune resident lost Rs 8 lakh to a fraudulent trading app promoted through social media, with an FIR lodged naming a Google India officer. The case sits at the intersection of India's retail investment boom, its fragmented digital regulatory architecture, and a transnational scam infrastructure that law enforcement is only beginning to confront systematically.
Dharmendra Pradhan Pledges Parliamentary Debate on NEET as Structural Fault Lines Deepen
Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan has committed fully to parliamentary discussion on the NEET-UG 2024 scandal, while Prime Minister Modi has called the paper leaks a 'grave sin' demanding strong accountability. The controversy, which touched multiple states and implicated roughly 2.4 million students, now centres not merely on punishment of wrongdoers but on whether India's centralised examination architecture is structurally sound. The CBI probe and the NTA's leadership change signal institutional response — but the harder design questions remain unanswered.
El Niño's Return Puts India's Ethanol Blending Programme on Notice
A 'Godzilla' El Niño event forecast to suppress monsoon rainfall across Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, and Karnataka — India's three largest sugarcane belts — directly threatens feedstock supply for the Ethanol Blended Petrol programme. With the government targeting 20% blending by 2025-26, a crop shortfall creates simultaneous pressure on energy transition goals, sugar output, and rural farm incomes. The episode forces a reckoning with a structural fault-line: a national energy-security target built almost entirely on a single rain-fed crop.
India Emerges as Major Captagon Transit Route in First Synthetic Drug Bust
The Narcotics Control Bureau's first Captagon seizure under Operation RAGEPILL exposed how international drug cartels exploit India as a transit route to Gulf nations. The bust recovered 227.7 kg of the synthetic stimulant worth ₹182 crore and arrested a Syrian national operating illegally in the country.