Guest Column| Balancing autonomy, centralisation: Federalism’s evolving policy dynamics

Federal systems face the unique challenge of balancing national coherence with state autonomy. Tracking federal drift A growing concern in India—and in other federal systems like the United States—is the phenomenon of federal drift, where power gradually shifts from states to the central government. Effective policy making in federal systems requires a nuanced balance between central authority and regional autonomy. However, the increasing trend of federal drift threatens to disrupt this equilibrium as central governments seek to enhance national coherence, sometimes at the expense of regional diversity.