Economic and Political Weekly

The Economic and Political Weekly is a peer-reviewed academic journal published weekly by the Sameeksha Trust, focusing on various social science disciplines. In January 2018, Gopal Guru was appointed as the new Editor, taking on the role for a five-year term. He succeeded Paranjoy Guha Thakurta, who had been the full-time editor since April 1, 2016. Guha Thakurta's appointment occurred during a period of controversy, as many social scientists were voicing concerns over the resignation of the previous editor, C. Rammanohar Reddy, in January 2016. This situation continued to unfold dramatically, culminating in Guha Thakurta's own resignation in 2017.

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Emergence of Free Trade Agreements as a Trade Policy Instrument in India

6 days ago | epw.in | Nida Rahman |Krishan Sharma

Free trade agreements have become vital trade policy instruments for India, addressing the issue of untapped export potential and harmonising trade policies with potential trading and strategically important countries. India recently inked FTAs with Australia and UAE in 2022.
Navigating the Nexus of Migration and Development

1 week ago | epw.in | Amrita Datta |Manish Kumar

Migration and Development in India: The Bihar Experience by Amrita Datta, Oxon and New York: Routledge, 2023; pp xviii + 220, price not indicated. Migration, a dynamic and multidimensional phenomenon, hasbeen an integral part of India’s socio-economic landscape. Over the centuries, the movement of people within and across the country’s borders has profoundly shaped its cultural, economic, and social fabric.
Delhi Assembly Elections 2025

2 weeks ago | epw.in | Rashmi Singh

The Aam Aadmi Party Learns to Lose The loss of Aam Aadmi Party in the recently concluded elections in Delhi must be analysed in the context of its visible difficulty in being able to govern the city effectively and its recurring friction with the union government. The defeat also signifies a rejection of the party’s overweening ambition, combined with its increasingly ambiguous and unconvincing ideological positioning.
The Tariff Tantrum and Its Justification

2 weeks ago | epw.in | Parthapratim Pal |Partha Pratim Ray

Dubious Foundation of Questionable Economics The United States authorities try to justify the imposition of tariffs as a response to persistent US trade deficits and the perceived decline of domestic manufacturing, arguing that trade imbalances undermine advanced manufacturing capacity and critical supply chains. However, this argument overlooks several other factors that influence the US trade deficit and domestic economy.
Beyond the Ouster: Unpacking India-Bangladesh Ties in Transition

3 weeks ago | epw.in | Adfer Shah

Satyabrat Sinha’s commentary, “The Bangladesh Crisis: Sheikh Hasina’s Ouster and India” (EPW, 5 April 2025), offers a perceptive analysis of the geopolitical tremors following Sheikh Hasina’s exit from Bangladesh on 5 August 2024, and their implications for India’s regional influence. Sinha’s focus on India’s strategic preference for a stable, secular neighbour is astute, capturing the delicate balance New Delhi seeks amid Bangladesh’s potential drift towards China or an Islamic identity.
An Unserious, Unimplementable, and Unconstitutional Law

3 weeks ago | epw.in | Alok Prasanna Kumar

A decade after Bengaluru’s last municipal elections and five years since the term of the previous municipal corporation (Tripathi 2025), yet another law has been passed ostensibly to restructure urban governance. The lack of elections looks unlikely to be addressed any time soon. This is because the existing Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) Act, 20211 is intended to be repealed and replaced by the Greater Bengaluru Governance Bill, 2024.
Chasing Ghosts and Imaginary Fears

1 month ago | epw.in | Alok Prasanna Kumar

Listen to this article Your browser does not support the audio element. Bibtex Endnote RIS Google Scholar Attempts to curb dissent through legislative and executive actions do not bode well for the future of democratic institutions.
Lost in the Machine

1 month ago | epw.in | Adfer Shah

Babu P Remesh’s commentary, “Overwork Culture, Karoshi, and the Right to Disconnect” (EPW, 15 March 2025), is a timely and incisive critique of the toxic work culture that has become normalised in the digital age. The piece effectively underscores the erosion of work–life balance, particularly in the context of overwork, karoshi (death by overwork), and the urgent need for a legal right to disconnect.
The Fight for Supremacy in Artificial Intelligence

1 month ago | epw.in | Parthapratim Pal |Partha Pratim Ray

The Beginning of a Sino-US Technology War The article focuses on the escalating competition between the United States and China in the field of artificial intelligence. Despite US-imposed restrictions on graphics processing unit exports to China, the launch of the AI chatbot (R1) of the Chinese company, DeepSeek, seemed to have matched or surpassed the performance of US-based AI models at a much lower cost.
A Potential Delimitation Compromise

1 month ago | epw.in | Alok Prasanna Kumar

Using the number of eligible voters as a basis for delimitation rather than population might provide a politically expedient solution to the crisis of malapportionment of seats in the Lok Sabha. However, the justification for using this method must be based on constitutional principles and values rather than pragmatic grounds. Politicians in south Indian states have expressed fears that delimitation on the basis of the next census would lose representation in the Lok Sabha (Ali 2025).