The year has barely begun
and the newscycle is out of control
Hello DoorDesi,
First actual week of 2026 done and dusted! Pat yourselves on the back.
I started this year with saying “I feel good about this year!“ and the next morning Trump kidnapped the President of Venezuela. Jinx is a thing, haan? I ain’t taking it lightly anymore.
This week I watched Haq on Netflix, the movie based on the Shah Bano case on Triple Talaq. Started watching it with some skepticism and mostly because I like Yami Gautam and Emraan Hashmi as actors. And oh boy did they deliver! But more importantly, I found the movie to be quite nuanced and well written. With movies like these, especially in today’s political environment, the line between creative liberty and propaganda seem to be blurring. This one stood out as an exception for me. If any of you have watched it already, let me know if you disagree.
So that was week 1. No grand conclusions or reflections and no broken resolutions yet. If something here makes you pause, rethink, or sigh my job is done. As always, hit reply if you have thoughts, disagreements, or strong feelings about Emraan Hashmi, gig economy, or my terrible track record with optimism.
Same time, next week!
Just the gist
🔗”Are you ready for the train that left three weeks ago?”
Looks like the Indian government pulled the classic, Indian ‘“I am on my way“ when they are really only just getting out of bed’ with the U.S. and it backfired. If you have been hearing about the U.S. imposing a 500% tariff on Indian exports, you maybe right. But it might have been because of our tardiness.
During an interview on the All-In podcast, US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has suggested that the Indo-US trade deal (mentioned in previous editions) fell through because Prime Minister Narendra Modi did not call US President Donald Trump in time after the agreement had been set up. So he moved on with making other trade agreements with countries that did show up on time and subsequently backtracked from the deal that had been negotiated.
He also reportedly greenlit the Sanctioning Russia Act which gives him the authority to impose tariffs upto 500% on countries that are still buying Russian oil. Yours truly happens to be buying 38% of Russia’s oil exports so that, coupled with our delay in confirming the deal terms with the U.S. is what has gotten us here.
➡️ Show up on time when you are needed somewhere be it for a party or the negotiation table for international trade deals.
🔗Too fast, too furious: Tech Bro drift
One of the things us DoorDesis often complain about is the lack of access to quick service delivery abroad like Blinkit, Zomato, Zepto etc. Well, it turns out it is as evil as it is convenient.
On New Year’s eve gig workers across the country went on a strike asking for better working conditions for themselves. Their complains include low per delivery income, distance based incentives which leads to them having to drive long distances for meagre income, and the lack of social security. The tech bros hitback with numbers showing how orders were record breaking on New Year’s eve despite the strike which, honestly, says more about the lack of collective empathy in Indians these days than it does about the strike itself.
Last year the government brought gig workers under a formal welfare framework so they can be eligible for social benefits. However, if the framework is adopted as is, it excludes most gig workers from getting social benefits. This is because it requires that they work for at least 90 in a year with a single aggregator or 120 days if they work for multiple aggregators to qualify. However, most gig workers do not own the vehicles they drive and are often seasonal workers. So catch twenty two for the very people who make sure your mom gets her dhaniya as she is pouring the daal from the pressure cooker.
➡️ The debate over whether this is employment creation or exploitation is age old. The answer is simple, you do not NEED anything within 10 minutes of wanting it. So while yes, the gig economy creates flexible employment opportunities for a large section of the society, it does not need to be exploitative so we can act all entitled.
🔗Living our own nightmarish mission impossible
So the U.S. administration used its tax payer’s money (that means some of you guys as well) to kidnap the president of another sovereign nation. Listen, we can talk about Maduro’s authoritarian regime. Certainly can. But another country waltzing in and picking him up is just… insane for the lack of a better word. This is like your neighbour arguing that your house is badly managed, so they climb over the wall, kidnap your dad, and say, “Relax, we’re just restoring order. Oh and while we are at it, we’ll also take your furniture because you can’t care for it.”
On the plus side, India will remain largely unaffected by U.S. takeover of Venezuelan oil because we were buying that much anyway. Which seems to be a good enough reason for our leadership to keep quiet about the U.S. blatant disregard for international law.
➡️ Enjoy the world as it is while it lasts because 2026 has opened the book with a chapter so insane that ideally it should only be up from here but we’ve seen how the past 6 years have been.
In civic lessons in school we learnt about the revolutionary MNREGA that transformed rural India - a policy put in place to improve rural participation in labour market with dignity while ensuring accountability to alleviate poverty.
Since 2014, the Modi government hasn’t abolished MNREGA outright. That would be too in your face. Instead, it’s been starved, jammed, and digitally strangled. Budgets keep running out before the year ends, forcing states to stop giving work. Payments are delayed well beyond the legally mandated 15 days, sometimes stretching to 2–3 months. At the same time, decision-making has been pulled away from panchayats and shoved into opaque digital systems: MIS shutdowns, algorithmic fund releases, mandatory Aadhar-based Payment System, the same Aadhar that, in principle, is not mandatory. Except it is.
MNREGA was meant to act as an economic shock absorber supporting demand when crops fail, jobs disappear, or disasters hit. Weakening it means less cash in villages, more migration, rising debt, and falling consumption.
The Indian National Congress is now mobilising a nationwide agitation to demand full and timely funding of MNREGA, immediate clearance of wage arrears, restoration of the legal right to work, decentralisation and empowerment of panchayats, and protection of the programme’s Gandhian and constitutional character.
➡️ MNREGA props up rural demand, stabilises the economy during shocks, and slows distress migration. Diluting it saves the government money on paper and costs the country far more in inequality, insecurity, and social stress. How India treats MNREGA is a pretty good indicator of who its growth story is actually for.
Read with me
🔗 Partisan politics and Pakistan’s military
In an in-depth interview with historian and Southasia expert Ayesha Jalal, Himal Southasia’s Nyantara Narayanan discusses the recent constitutional amendment in Pakistan and what it means for the region.
Pakistan’s 27th constitutional amendment, passed in November, has done something unprecedented: it has formally written the military’s dominance into the Constitution. What was once an informal veto over civilian politics is now explicit, legal, and extremely hard to reverse.
The military has always dominated Pakistan’s politics, foreign policy, and security. However, earlier military regimes relied on martial law and judicial excuses like the “doctrine of necessity.” This time, parliament itself has given the military legal supremacy. That’s the real shift. This also likely means tighter control over dissent.
Jalal explicitly links the amendment to regional tensions, including the May ‘25 conflict with India, which she says helped justify Asim Munir’s elevation. Pakistan also fears a two-front security challenge: Afghanistan on one side, India on the other. And finally, militancy in Balochistan is framed by Pakistan’s military as India-backed.
➡️ This also means that India might be looking at harder internal security policies, not regional brinkmanship and Pakistan will remain central to India’s security narrative.
Thank you for reading this far!
With love on behalf of two women who cringe at the mention of chai tea latte,
Sudeshna
Co-Founder, DoorDesi 💃
Housekeeping
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