The Right to Information Act (RTI), once hailed as a revolutionary tool empowering citizens to hold power accountable, now stands at a critical crossroads. Two decades after its enactment, the law that once illuminated corruption, exposed scams, and strengthened democracy has been systematically hollowed out through political interference, bureaucratic evasion, and legislative dilution. From the 2019 amendments weakening Information Commissions to the Digital Personal Data Protection Act’s Section 443 shielding the government under the guise of privacy, transparency has been recast as a threat. India today suffers from data opacity, manipulation, and denial—where evidence is replaced by erasure and secrecy becomes governance. Institutions once devoted to public integrity—the NSSO, CAG, and Indian Statistical Institute—face interference, delayed data releases, and censorship of inconvenient truths. Activists who dared to ask questions have been attacked or killed, while citizens encounter silence and obstruction. The RTI’s decline mirrors a deeper democratic crisis: the transformation of a people’s right to know into the state’s right to conceal. Yet amid suppression, citizens continue to resist—filing mass RTIs, exposing institutional failures, and demanding reform. The fight to save RTI is no longer just about access to information; it is a struggle to reclaim the soul of Indian democracy itself.
Category Archives: Journal
CONVERGENCE TO PRAXIS
This journal tries to demolish the administrative boundaries of academic disciplinary technology by amalgamating all the so-called “subjects” by condemning the objectification, subjectification and subjection.
It strives to reach the vanishing point of theory and praxis. Thus, instead of so-called “inter-disciplinary studies”, it emphasizes on the convergence of earthian knowledges and praxiologies. The journal attempts to achieve this end by means of dialogue without manipulation in the context of a participatory, local-resource based, low-energy efficient, small-scale, self-reliant, partyless, moneyless, decentralized democracy. As this journal is against the academiocratic elitism and patron-client relationship, it maintains the Copyleft Writers’ Movement and follows the Creative Commons License.
Between Cosmetic Grooming, Pharmacology and DHFL Haircut: Ambiguities in the Case of Bohem by Piramal Pharma Limited
This paper investigates the regulatory and ethical positioning of Bohem, a men’s grooming product line launched by Piramal Pharma Limited (PPL), within the Indian cosmetic–drug regulatory framework. Drawing upon publicly available documents from the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO), Piramal Pharma’s corporate communications, and state regulatory norms, the study demonstrates that Bohem—while branded under a major pharmaceutical conglomerate—is not a pharmacologically approved medicine. Rather, it is classified as a cosmetic or personal-care product, subject to the relatively lenient provisions of the Cosmetics Rules 2020.
The analysis underscores how blurred categorizations between cosmetics and therapeutics enable large corporations to exploit brand trust associated with pharmaceutical credibility while avoiding the rigor of clinical testing and drug regulation. The paper situates this within broader debates on consumer safety, regulatory opacity, and corporate ethics in India’s post-liberalization health-industrial economy. A parallel case study juxtaposes the cosmetic “haircut” of Bohem with the financial “haircut” suffered by DHFL investors, illustrating how governance and grooming converge in the moral economy of neoliberal India.
Dynastic Capitalism and Ecological “Externalities”: The Ambani–Piramal Nexus in Post-Liberalization India
This essay investigates how the marital and corporate nexus between the Ambani and Piramal families consolidates dynastic power while enabling ecological, social, and ethical impunity in India’s neoliberal economy. Operating through the Mitakshara coparcenary system, this “nepo-capitalist complex” centralizes vast wealth across Reliance Industries, Piramal Group, and affiliated ventures, while systematically externalizing environmental degradation, resource depletion, and socio-economic costs onto marginalized communities. Through an integrated critique of Ambani’s Reliance’s pollution and cronyism, Campa Cola’s water-intensive operations, Piramal Pharma’s Digwal effluents, Piramal Realty’s climate-vulnerable coastal real estate, Russian oil dealings, Z+ state protection, and the contested Vantara wildlife project, the essay traces the nexus of dynastic wealth, environmental exploitation, and geopolitical opportunism. The Mitakshara mechanism emerges not as a cultural relic but as a structural tool that facilitates intergenerational wealth consolidation, shields elites from accountability, and perpetuates ecological and social extraction in twenty-first century India.
Where Have All The Flowers Gone? Disclosing Piramal Pharma’s “Little’s”
This investigative article, dedicated to the twenty-two children who perished from contaminated cough syrup in India—a stark emblem of systemic regulatory failure, profit-driven negligence, and ethical erosion in the pharmaceutical sector—unveils the moral contradictions embedded in Piramal Pharma’s “Little’s” baby-care line, encompassing wipes, oils, powders, shampoos, diapers, toys, and the whimsical “Jungle Magic” extensions like perfumes, sanitizers, and repellents. Through a meticulous dissection of product variants, their petrochemical-derived ingredients (such as talc, polypropylene, parabens, phenoxyethanol, and superabsorbent polymers), and associated health risks—including asbestos contamination, endocrine disruption, microplastic ingestion, respiratory hazards, and unverified pediatric safety—it exposes how corporate rhetoric of “gentle care” and “purity” masks a toxic alchemy of commodified infancy, where parental anxiety is monetized amid opaque supply chains reliant on Chinese imports (15% of raw materials), environmental externalities like Digwal’s pollution, and regulatory gray zones that classify these as non-pharmacological FMCG rather than scrutinized drugs. Interweaving poetic laments, folk songs, philosophical dialogues, and political-ecological critiques, the piece frames infancy as a battleground of postcolonial capitalism, where the cradle mirrors the coffin through iatrogenic harm, false patriotism (boycotting Chinese goods in rhetoric while importing them in practice), and the Anthropocene’s uninhabitable legacy of climate toxicity and microplastics; appendices provide granular data on toy industry economics, material toxicities, and sourcing hypotheses, culminating in demands for transparency, independent audits, pharmacovigilance for consumer goods, and a reclamation of nurture from market fetishism to honor the lost children not as accidents but as indictments urging societal reform and remembrance.
From Itching Skin to Itching Palms: Calamities of Lacto Calamine of Piramal Pharma’s Pharmakon
This paper examines Lacto Calamine, a widely used topical cosmetic-lotion marketed by Piramal Pharma, through the lens of pharmacological efficacy, regulatory ambiguity, and ethical marketing. Drawing from publicly available data on its ingredients—primarily kaolin clay, zinc oxide, glycerin, and aloe vera—this study interrogates whether the formulation justifies its “pseudo-medical” truth-claims. It situates Lacto Calamine within India’s broader landscape of over-the-counter (OTC) cosmetic-medicinal hybrids that thrive on consumer faith rather than clinical validation. Methodologically, the paper employs both toxicological data analysis and self-reflexive ethnography, integrating critical theory and personal testimony to illuminate how pharmacological discourse and neoliberal consumerism intertwine. Ethical questions regarding celebrity endorsements, placebo reassurance, and gendered beauty expectations are explored. The study concludes that Lacto Calamine functions less as a pharmacologically commensurable product and more as a symbolic artefact of cosmetic capitalism, merging colonial legacies of fairness with neoliberal health consumerism.
Conscious Capitalism or Spiritual Washing? Vaiṣṇava Philanthro-Capitalism and the Case of Ajay Piramal
This article critically examines the intersection of religion, capitalism, and corporate power in contemporary India, using Ajay Piramal and the DHFL scandal as a case study to interrogate the concept of “conscious capitalism” and its spiritualized variants. It argues that ostensibly ethical and Vaishnava-aligned philanthropy—what may be termed “Vaishnava philanthro-capitalism”—often functions as a moral façade for systemic exploitation, environmental negligence, financial expropriation, and political cronyism. The piece highlights Piramal’s alleged expropriation of DHFL investors’ life savings, corporate entanglements, and use of Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPPs) to intimidate dissent, juxtaposed against his projected image as a Paramavaishnava disciple of ISKCON’s Radhanath Swami. Drawing on environmental, socio-political, and cinematic examples, it demonstrates how spiritual rhetoric is deployed to legitimize wealth accumulation, mask structural inequities, and neutralize democratic critique, while philanthropic gestures—though socially visible—fail to address labor hierarchies, ecological harm, or systemic injustice. Situating these phenomena within broader debates on crony capitalism, moral laundering, and ethical branding, the article contends that spiritualized corporate practice risks transforming devotional ethics into instruments of power, leaving social, economic, and environmental vulnerability intact, and calls for a critical reorientation toward structural accountability, redistribution, and the protection of marginalized voices.
When Hindutva Betrays Hindus: The Market Mask of Identity
This article presents a critical analysis of Hindutva as a political and economic project, arguing that its purported aim of protecting Hindu interests is a façade for market fundamentalism, crony capitalism, and authoritarian consolidation. Using the DHFL financial scandal as a case study, it demonstrates how ordinary Hindu investors and pensioners suffer losses while political insiders and corporate cronies benefit, exposing the betrayal embedded within the saffron narrative. Beyond economic exploitation, the piece highlights the systematic suppression of dissenting Hindu voices—eco-activists, reformist priests, and ascetics—whose advocacy for ecological balance, spiritual pluralism, and resistance to commodification has been marginalized or violently silenced. The article situates communal polarization, Islamophobia, and other engineered religious tensions as deliberate distractions that conceal the underlying agenda of capital extraction and consolidation of power. Through examples from domestic policy, foreign aid, heritage destruction, and environmental mismanagement, it contends that Hindutva endangers Hindu communities from within, revealing a profound contradiction between its rhetoric and its effects. The critique underscores that the issue is not religion per se but the instrumentalization of religious identity for neoliberal and authoritarian ends, culminating in a call for Hindus to recognize and resist Hindutva’s internal threats.
E20 Petrol in India: Green Transition or Greenwashed Cronyism?
This article critically examines India’s nationwide rollout of E20 petrol—a fuel blend of 80% petrol and 20% ethanol—framed as a green transition but marked by structural contradictions and political capture. While the policy promises reduced fossil fuel dependence and enhanced energy security, its hasty and opaque implementation has exposed ecological, economic, and democratic fault lines. Large-scale ethanol production, dependent on sugarcane and food grains, risks intensifying food-versus-fuel conflicts, groundwater depletion, monoculture expansion, and contested lifecycle emissions, undermining its environmental rationale. At the same time, the accelerated timeline has disproportionately benefited politically connected firms, notably those linked to Union Minister Nitin Gadkari’s family, fuelling charges of dynastic capitalism and greenwashed cronyism. Consumers face reduced mileage, vehicle compatibility issues, and higher costs, while farmers encounter persistent inequities despite promised gains. Unlike Brazil’s gradual, infrastructure-supported ethanol transition, India’s compressed shift neglects readiness, transparency, and public consultation. By prioritizing centralized agro-industrial biofuels over decentralized renewables such as solar microgrids and electric mobility, E20 risks locking India into short-term, carbon-intensive fixes while delaying structural decarbonization. The study argues that the E20 rollout exemplifies the mirage of green developmentalism—where sustainability discourse legitimizes elite enrichment and policy capture, displacing burdens onto citizens, farmers, and ecosystems.
The Pharmakon of Coca Cola Capitalism: Paradigm of Thirst
This paper synthesizes a sustained conversation into a coherent, comprehensive, and rigorous research paper that maps the concept of Coca-Cola capitalism to concrete historical and contemporary case studies in India. The analysis traces the genealogy of the term, situates it within scholarship on globalization and cultural imperialism, and offers a detailed historical narrative on Coca-Cola’s presence in India: its arrival (1950), exit (1977) amid FERA (Foreign Exchange Regulation Act) disputes, the growth of “indigenous” soft-drink alternatives, and Coca-Cola’s re-entry after economic liberalization (1993). The paper then examines the contemporary re-territorialization of the Coca-Cola model under Indian oligarchic capital—focusing on Reliance Consumer Products (Isha Ambani’s corporate sphere) and its acquisition and relaunch of legacy brands such as Campa and minority stakes in heritage regional companies (e.g., Sosyo). Ecological footprints of cold-drink production (water use, agricultural inputs, packaging waste, energy and emissions, and local social-ecological conflicts) are analyzed, alongside health hazards of carbonated soft drinks, including obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular risks. A critical examination of corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives, such as the Piramal Foundation’s Sarvajal RO water ATMs in the context of the Digwal case-study, highlights hypocritical dimensions in water governance amid industrial extraction. The paper argues that Reliance’s strategy constitutes a domesticated variant of Coca-Cola capitalism—what the paper terms Ambani-Cola capitalism—which mechanically reproduces branding, distribution, and extraction logics while reorienting profit streams to domestic oligopoly. Drawing on Zizekian ideology critique, Lacanian psychoanalysis, and the Derridean interpretation of pharmakon, the analysis reveals the ideological surplus in commodified consumption. Policy implications and recommendations for environmental governance, community rights, competition policy, and corporate accountability are offered.
Why Today’s India Cannot Deny Its Undeclared Emergency
This article examines the concept of an “undeclared emergency” in contemporary India under Narendra Modi’s regime, situating it against the backdrop of declared Emergency (1975–77). While declared Emergency was openly authoritarian and time-bound, today’s context is marked by a much more diffuse and insidious erosion of democratic institutions, legal safeguards, and civil liberties—achieved without formal proclamation. The article highlights continuities and ruptures across political, economic, and social dimensions: from the manipulation of electoral processes, enabling economic bankruptcies to enrich a select few, the subversion of the judiciary to the deployment of majoritarian nationalism and the criminalization of dissent. Unlike the past, the current phase relies on bureaucratic coercion, surveillance, and ideological consolidation to create a climate of permanent insecurity. The article argues that this “undeclared emergency” represents not merely a suspension of democracy but its reconstitution into a new authoritarian normal, where legality, legitimacy, and violence intertwine to foreclose dissent while maintaining the simulated facade of popular consent.
Once in a Blue Moon Academia 