In-depth explainers on Indian policy, law, the Constitution and government pay and benefits.
India votes almost every year. Some state goes to the polls every few months, and the Lok Sabha election follows its own five-year cycle. One Nation One Election, officially called simultaneous elections, would bring the Lok Sabha and all state assembly elections onto a single schedule. The government has introduced two bills to do this, … Read more
India does not have one family law for everyone. Hindus, Sikhs, Jains and Buddhists follow codified Hindu laws, Muslims follow Muslim personal law as applied under the Shariat Application Act, 1937, Christians and Parsis have their own marriage and divorce statutes, and anyone can opt for the secular Special Marriage Act, 1954. A Uniform Civil … Read more
The Directive Principles of State Policy (DPSP) are the Constitution’s instructions to governments about the kind of society India should build. They are in Part IV, Articles 36 to 51, and were inspired by the Irish Constitution. Where Fundamental Rights tell the State what it cannot do, the Directive Principles tell it what it should … Read more
Fundamental Rights are the basic rights the Constitution of India guarantees to people against the State. They sit in Part III of the Constitution, from Article 12 to Article 35, and B.R. Ambedkar called Article 32, the right to go to the Supreme Court to enforce them, the heart and soul of the Constitution. This … Read more
Dearness allowance (DA) is the part of a government employee’s salary that protects it from inflation. Pensioners get the same protection as dearness relief (DR). Because DA is a percentage of basic pay, every revision changes the monthly salary of about a crore of central government employees and pensioners, and state governments usually follow with … Read more
The 8th Central Pay Commission (8th CPC) will decide the next round of salary, allowance and pension revisions for roughly 50 lakh central government employees and about 69 lakh pensioners, including defence personnel. This page tracks where the commission stands as of September 2026, what it has been asked to examine, and how a fitment … Read more
