20,000 porters out of work

Railway porters feel crushed by the Covid crisis as fewer trains and the fear among passengers of infection means that thousands of porters have seen their incomes fall by over half On March 20, Abdul Khan, 36, packed his bags and left for home. Khan has been a porter at the New Delhi railway station […]

Trial by media, acquittal by court

The public may have forgotten the Tablighi Jamaat incident, but they have been under arrest till now. The Bombay High Court found no evidence that Covid-19 was spread by their actions. In fact, it felt they are victims of circumstances The Tablighi Jamaat members became the face of the virus in India, with the state […]

Getting a grip on violence in lockups

With a PIL now filed in the Supreme Court, the ease with which police personnel get away with custodial killing and torture is sought to be addressed. If the force respected rule of law, judicial intervention would not be necessary Baljeet, a 28-year-old from Haryana’s Bhiwani district, was arrested under the IPC Sections dealing with […]

The Indian factor

Biden’s likely already got the Indian American vote and the Black vote, so what else is left? Joe Biden painted himself into a corner. Back in March, during the last Democratic primary debate, he proclaimed that his vice-presidential pick would be a woman. In the wake of the George Floyd protests in the following months, it became […]

Citing Covid, builders delay handover of homes

The Indian government has given developers at least 19 more months to deliver their projects. For homebuyers, this means a struggle to pay rent and repay loans in these uncertain times as they wait for their dream homes On March 25, the day India went into lockdown to contain the spread of coronavirus, Hari Nayak […]

Beware the infodemic as fake advice snakes its way to you

Fuelling chaos and panic, misinformation makes its way insidiously through our phones amid the global pandemic Last year, public health related misinformation garnered 3.8 billion views on Facebook, according to a US-based NGO  Avaaz. And amid the  global pandemic, viewing of misinformation peaked in April this year. Avaaz claims that misinformation-based content on top 10 […]

A question of students’ future

Those who want exams postponed have valid reasons to protest the schedules put out by testing authorities — but so do those who want to get going The nationwide protest against holding NEET UG, JEE exams is growing day by day. Protesters are citing the vulnerability to Covid infection during exams, as many students who […]

Gagged by the majority 

Anxious, leaderless and scared to voice their views – the Muslim youth in today’s India are facing an existential crisis “If I get an opportunity, and as soon as I get one, I will leave this country for good. Such is the level of anxiety I feel under the current regime, I am worried about […]