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.
Protesters attack railway stations and set trains on fire following the unveiling of the Agnipath programme to limit military tenure to four years rather than the typical 17. For the Modi government, this will allow defence modernisation. Reducing job prospects by one of India’s main public sector employers has put the spotlight on youth unemployment, which tops 20 per cent in Indian cities.
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.
Print newspaper readership in India rose until 2019. The country remains the world’s second largest market with a circulation of 240 million copies. With the pandemic, digital content is up, but so is repression against journalists, a paradoxical situation in a country where the press was born to oppose British colonialism.
In 2012, Delhi and Islamabad struck a deal to let seniors reunite with family members left on the other side of the border during the violence of 1947. In fact, it was never implemented and getting a visa to meet loved ones still takes months. However, over the past year, a YouTube channel and an open crossing for religious pilgrimages have given some hope to the people of Punjab.
The chief minister called on the governor to sign the bill without the assent of the Legislative Council (upper house). If it becomes law, the bill would make Karnataka the tenth Indian state to adopt such an anti-Christian measure. For the archbishop of Bangalore, the law will be used by “fringe elements and groups” to sow discord. Hence, he urges “the Governor not to give assent to the bill”. Many Indian States have adopted legislation dear to Hindu nationalists.
The Life Insurance Company recently made its initial public offering. A corporate giant that is as old as the modern Indian state, the company is worth more than US$ 500 billion but only 3 per cent of the Indian population has life insurance.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi made the announcement at a recent Ayush summit. The market for traditional medicines is booming, in part thanks to the recommendations of the Indian government at the start of the pandemic. Exports may soon reach Africa.
Born 131 years ago, the Indian jurist fought for social equity for Dalits, Adivasi and women. Indian politicians like to cite him, but in practice nothing is being done to improve the situation of the poorest, who, according to the latest studies, are still discriminated with respect to the economy, healthcare and law. An award to honour him has not been given for years.
Gautam Adani joins Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos on Bloomberg's Billionaire Index. In the past two years, his fortune grew tenfold while India was reeling from the pandemic-induced economic crisis. The businessman from Gujarat has seen every door thrown open to him by the BJP government. At present, he is into both coal and renewable energy.
The typhoon devastated the state of West Bengal in May last year. Indian insurance companies are among the worst in the world when it comes to covering extreme weather events, even though they reimbursed record expenses between 2020 and 2021. Intensity and frequency of typhoons are set to increase in India.
India’s best known food delivery company sparks online negative reaction over riders’ safety in a country that tops the world in road-related fatalities.
The never-ending conflict in the region divided between Pakistan and India has been reignited by the latest Bollywood film, which recounts the exodus of the Pandits between 1989-90. The movie has been accused of historical revisionism. The BJP has made the film tax-free to promote its viewing. At least 350 civilians and military personnel died in Kashmir last year.
Hindu nationalists win the crucial Uttar Pradesh state election, but the anti-corruption Aam Aadmi Party crushes Punjab’s hitherto dominant parties. As the crisis of the Congress party gets worse, observers wonder who will he be the real challenger of the BJP in 2024.
International relations professor Swaran Singh believes India does not want to side with the United States and the West, but neither does it want to side with Russia. In the last week, however, it has had to recalibrate itself. The risk is that the Ukraine conflict will turn into yet another frozen conflict around the Russian borders.
Educated but unemployed, or workers treated like cannon fodder. This is the picture that emerges from recent surveys on the Indian labour market. In the automotive sector, thousands of workers are seriously injured and have no protection. But the car industry is expected to be worth 300 billion dollars in 2026.
More than 200 languages have disappeared in India in the past 50 years and another 197 are considered at risk. The languages of Adivasi groups are mostly spoken. Little room is available online and in official documents for those languages with a script. Yet something has changed in recent years, as more grassroots initiatives try to preserve the cultural heritage of indigenous tribes.
Schools in Karnataka have been closed for three days after riots broke out against the ban on wearing the Islamic veil in class. The riots spread throughout the country at the same time as the opening of polling stations in Uttar Pradesh. Jesuit Father Cedric Prakash: "It is a political manipulation, the wealth of India lies in its diversity".
An in-depth report accuses the president of the NCPCR, India’s federal child protection agency, of pursuing a Hindutva-inspired agenda against Christians and Muslims. Meanwhile, the COVID-19 pandemic has orphaned more than 147,000.
India has banned asbestos mining but buys it mainly from Russia. Experts are calling for a ban on trade in the dangerous mineral, which is widely used for roofs in the slums where the poorest people live. Environmental lawyer Gopal Krishna explains to AsiaNews how the Indian government has based its inaction on research financed by producers that minimise the risks.
After the international outcry, only a handful of organisations, including Mother Teresa's nuns, have had permits, which expired at the end of 2021, renewed. How the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act works and why it affects small organisations in particular. A local operator: "The Modi government is telling everyone: You may work here only by our kind permission".
The election campaign for the legislative assemblies in five Indian states has begun. All eyes are on Uttar Pradesh, which with its 200 million inhabitants is crucial for the national balance. Hindu nationalist monk Yogi Adityanath, head of the outgoing local government and Modi's would-be successor for BJP leadership, is fanning the flames of resentment against Muslims. But he has to reckon with party defections.
