Dweep Tulika

  A developed India cannot be a promise for tomorrow. Citizens need to experience measurable progress today. For years, Indians have been asked to look towards the future. 2047 has become one of the country's defining development milestones — the year India aims to complete 100 years of independence as a developed nation. There is nothing wrong with having an ambitious national goal. The question is what happens between now and then . An Indian citizen living in 2026 does not live in 2047. That citizen pays taxes today. Pays GST today. Pays electricity bills, transport costs, school fees and medical expenses today. So the legitimate question is simple: Why should citizens have to wait until 2047 to experience the basic standards of a modern, efficient country? The world is already moving Technology is moving rapidly from laboratories into everyday life. Autonomous vehicles are being deployed in some markets. Drone technology is moving towards increasingly practical co...

There is a simple question hidden inside a powerful piece of political satire : How efficiently can the state find an ordinary citizen when it wants something from them—and how efficiently can it find that same citizen when the citizen wants something from the state? The difference can sometimes be striking. When it comes to collecting taxes, the system knows where you live. When an instalment is overdue, reminders arrive. When a traffic violation is recorded, the challan can reach your phone. When a government fee, penalty or licence payment is due, the machinery of administration can often identify the person responsible. In other words, when compliance is required, the citizen is rarely invisible. But democracy demands something more than compliance. A citizen is not merely a taxpayer, vehicle owner, consumer or beneficiary of government schemes. A citizen is also a voter, a participant in public life and a person with constitutional rights . That is where the cartoon's ...