Alessandra De Poli

Yesterday, fearing clashes, Tamil Nadu banned a rally by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. The Indian government recently banned the Popular Front of India for five years and arrested about a hundred of its members. Constant use of anti-terrorism legislation could fuel extremism.

Google announced a pilot to make some gaming apps available in India, where online gambling is formally banned. Despite this, the industry is growing fast and could reach US$ 5 billion and create 50,000 jobs by 2025. At the same, debts and suicide are also increasing among users.

Long-time top members of India’s once-dominant party have left. After running the country for half a century, it has failed to renew itself, increasingly centralised and in the hands of the Gandhi family. Rahul's march to unite the country against the BJP is unlikely to succeed.

The recent attack on a Catholic church in Punjab could have serious repercussions. On 5 September, Sikh religious leaders will hold an assembly to demand anti-conversion laws in a state not ruled by Hindu nationalists and where coexistence between religious groups has always been peaceful. As a result of the incident, the Diocese of Jalandhar closed schools for a day in protest. Meanwhile, India’s Supreme Court told the Modi government to gather evidence from states about the rise in violence against Christians.

Some as tall as 15-storey buildings, they are powerful sources of methane, which heats the air 84 times more than carbon dioxide. The Modi government has launched a campaign to clean up at least 600 of them in several cities by 2026. Need to re-evaluate the work of India's Safai Saathis, the informal waste collectors, who almost always belong to the lowest castes.

Fr Giuseppe Didonè has seen Taiwanese society evolve, and the Taiwanese are determined not to be robbed of their future. Used to living under threat, most continue to live as usual. Last month, the Camillians marked 70 years on the island. The “government truly appreciates what we do,” the clergymen told AsiaNews.

The games began yesterday in Chennai, chess central for sports fans. Russian, Chinese, and Pakistani players are absent, the latter because of the Kashmir question. As the game gains in popularity in India, chess coaches are now in short supply.

Driven by community of origin to return home to marry, Indians living abroad bring their wives back with them, but on different visas that deprive them of the same rights as their husbands. Abandoned after marriage, they often lose access to their children and their basic rights. In India, there is still no law obliging men to appear before a judge to answer for their abuse.

Neeraj Chopra, Murali Sreeshankar and Jeswin Aldrin are India’s newest track and field stars. Although some will bet at the World Athletics Championships, which opened today in Eugene (US), India remains a desert when it comes to Olympic medals. Cultural attitudes and poorly made investments seem to be the main causes; however, things appear to be changing.

Mohammad Zubair is co-founder of AltNews, a fact-checking website created in 2017. Multiple criticism of Prime Minister Narendra Modi goes back to the pogrom of 2002. Twitter is struggling with India’s requests to block tweets and accounts.

The ban takes effect on 1 October 2022 until the end of February 2023. Lorry drivers expect losses of millions of dollars. In winter, Delhi’s air becomes unbreathable; in 2019 alone, 1.67 million Indians died from air pollution-related diseases.

Aid distribution is still based on 2011 data, and does not take into account large sections of the population. The census scheduled for last year was postponed to a later date. The BJP refuses to carry out a caste census as demanded by opposition parties.