In a significant move, Commissioners on the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) have raised concerns about the “sophisticated, systematic persecution” of religious minorities by the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi at a hearing on India in Washington DC.

A  new report  released by two global NGOs, BankTrack and the Toxic Bonds Network, has claimed to have come up with “a disquieting truth”: that Barclays, a financial heavyweight with a “controversial” track record, is deeply entrenched in a “disturbing” alliance with “the Indian conglomerate and coal miner Adani Group.”

A new  report , “The Junk Push: Rising Consumption of Ultra-processed foods in India- Policy, Politics and Reality”, public health experts, consumers groups, lawyers, youth and patient groups, has called upon the Government of India to check the soaring consumption of High Fat Sugar or Salt (HFSS) foods or ultra-processed foods (UPF), popularly called junk food.

  During a Congressional Briefing held on Capitol Hill, Washington DC, Nadine Maenza, former Chair of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), has wondered why the Biden administration should raise issues of mass anti-minority mob violence  -- particularly in Haryana and Manipur -- with Modi. Modi should be told that if such violence continues, the US will be “compelled by law” to designate India as one of the world’s worst offenders of religious freedom, she urged.

  Levels of water scarcity are soaring in India and other major economies, including the US and China, as annual water use has risen by around 3,500 billion m3 globally over the last century. Action to increase water circularity through global collaboration and innovation could help tackle this. Doing so will bring wider benefits -- including reducing drought risk, supporting climate goals, and advancing social development to meet the UN Sustainable Development Goals - according to new research by British Standards Institute (BSI) and Waterwise.

  A new study has blamed Gujarat’s powerful milk cooperative sector, known across the country as Amul, for failing to take into cognisance the need to place under its wings urban area pastoralists, popularly known as Rabaris, involved mainly in selling cow milk to individual consumers. The study insists, that this, coupled with the lack of any policy on the part of the Gujarat government to “rehabilitate and modernise” the Rabaris’ business, has pushed the pastoralists to the margins of urban society.

A well-attended civil society meet, drawing a parallel between what happened in Manipur and the recent violence in Mewat, has insisted that in Mewat, like in Manipur, one saw state was "complicit" towards the perpetrators. Speakers at the meet, organised by the Campaign Against State Repression (CASR), insisted that those "falsely implicated" in Mewat violence, most of whom were Muslims, should be released and compensation be paid to the "victims of demolitions". The speakers also sought arrest of Hindutva leaders like Bittu Bajrangi, Monu Manesar and others allegedly responsible for instigation of violence in Nuh and other places in Mewat. Called “Authority and Complicity: Exposing State Sponsored Violence from Manipur to Mewat”, a fact-finding report on Nuh violence titled “Persecuted for Resistance” was relelased at the meet. Initiating the meet, senior activist John Dayal, analysing the socio-political condition of Nuh, said, all the shops of Muslims i...