As India’s wealth gap stretches to levels unseen since Independence and technology races ahead of policy, we find ourselves hurtling toward a collision of crises, job-shedding automation, gig economy precarity, climate-driven displacement and a mental health time bomb fed by chronic insecurity. At this moment, ideas such as universal basic income (UBI), once dismissed as utopian, deserve a fresh, pragmatic look. A UBI can cushion mass unemployment, restoring consumer demand when machines outnumber workers, rewarding unpaid care that props up the formal economy, and rebuilding a social contract frayed by pandemics and capitalism alike. In India, where welfare systems are often plagued by inefficiencies, exclusions and complex eligibility filters, a UBI offers a radical yet simple propositio

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