India has completed its 2,843-km Dedicated Freight Corridor network. That may sound like another major railway announcement, but the idea behind the project is actually quite simple. For decades, passenger trains and goods trains in India have largely used the same railway tracks. Passenger
India has spent years talking about polluted rivers, disappearing ponds, neglected lakes and crumbling traditional water structures. Governments announce missions, municipalities run cleanliness drives, activists raise alarms and social media regularly fills with photographs showing just how badly many local water bodies have been treated. Yet, in different parts of the
A completely unrelated video of a man dancing at a social gathering was turned into a controversy involving the Ram Mandir this week after social-media accounts falsely identified the man as Air Marshal (Retd.) Jeetendra Mishra, the newly appointed CEO of the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust. The claim was demonstrably false. Mishra had […]
India witnessed a manufactured controversy this week over Arunachal Pradesh, Aksai Chin and a United Nations resolution called “Correct the Map”. The way the story was presented created an alarming impression. The United Nations had produced a world map depicting Arunachal Pradesh and Aksai Chin between Indian and Chinese lines. India, meanwhile, had voted in […]
Nitin Gadkari has never been known for carefully measuring every word before speaking. His public interventions are frequently blunt, colourful and occasionally capable of creating controversies that overshadow the point he was originally trying to make. His recent remarks in Nagpur were another example. Speaking about electoral behaviour, Gadkari contrasted the support he
The photographs coming out of St Francis Mission Home at Kuravilangad appear, at first sight, to tell a modest story. Three nuns sit among sewing machines, fabric and clothes, producing nightwear, bags, churidar tops and home furnishings under an initiative called “Stand By Me – Survivors of Gender-Based Violence.” Those three women are Sisters Ranit […]
India’s debate over E20complain about mileage, owners of older vehicles question compatibility, automobile enthusiasts ask why consumers should bear the consequences of a fuel their cars were never optimised to use, while the government points towards lower crude-oil imports, reduced foreign-exchange expenditure and cleaner fuel. All of those arguments matter. But they
There are moments when the legality of an individual allegation becomes almost secondary to a much larger question: how is the coercive power of the state being exercised, and against whom? The arrest of Pune-based activist and social-media influencer Santosh Pandit is rapidly becoming one such case. Pandit has built his public profile around confronting […]
Nepal is living through a catastrophe of almost unimaginable proportions. More than 1,100 people have been confirmed dead following the Himalayan disaster of August 26, thousands remain missing, communities have been devastated, hydropower installations and bridges have been destroyed, and families across Nepal and several other countries are still desperately waiting for
Before discussing anything else, we extend our deepest condolences to every family that has lost someone in the catastrophe at Gyirong Port, and our support to those still living through the agony of not knowing what happened to a loved one. We would also respectfully advise families whose relatives remain missing to consider not reading […]








