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At least 66 sanitation workers across India died between February and July 2026 while cleaning sewers, septic tanks, sewage treatment plants, and open drains, according to the Dalit Adivasi Shakti Adhikar Manch (DASAM), a rights group tracking caste-based forced labour in sanitation work. The deaths continue despite a 2013 law banning manual scavenging , repeated Supreme Court orders requiring full mechanisation of such cleaning, and constitutional guarantees of equality and the right to life.

  In the flood-prone Kosi Diyara region of Bihar, water security is often defined not by scarcity, but by the challenges of living with hydrological volatility and seasonal extreme flows. In a field report published on July 28, 2026, by the South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers and People (SANDRP), Dr. Rahul Yaduka , Postdoctoral Researcher with the WATCON Project at SOAS University of London , outlines how seasonal migrant farmers are redefining water security by adapting to the erratic nature of the Kosi River rather than fighting it.

  Pakistan finds itself at both the center and the periphery of a mounting food security crisis gripping the Middle East, North Africa, Afghanistan, and Pakistan region, according to a new World Bank report , " Building Food Security, Creating Jobs ." With a population of 151 million people unable to afford a healthy diet, Pakistan has, by the report's account, the largest group of people in the region who cannot afford a nutritious diet , ahead even of Egypt's 66 million.

A new study, " Exploring the interlinkages between child marriage and family laws in South Asia ," has shed light on the profound legal ambiguities and systemic challenges that perpetuate child marriage in India , despite the country's significant progress in reducing its prevalence. 

   A technical regulatory notice issued by India's Central Insecticides Board and Registration Committee (CIB&RC) in April 2026 has drawn sharp criticism from public health advocates and farmers' organizations, who warn that proposed relaxations in pesticide residue testing could compromise food safety and public health. The notice invites comments on recommendations from the Scientific Panel on Pesticide Residue (SPPR) under FSSAI , proposing the adoption of a " Crop Grouping " framework for setting Maximum Residue Limits (MRLs)—the legal ceiling on pesticide residues permitted on food crops.

A new book by economists Santosh Mehrotra and Jajati Parida argues that India is squandering its demographic dividend even as the country's labour market slides deeper into crisis. In "India Out of Work: Rethinking India's Growth Story," released via Bloomsbury , the authors write that non-farm job creation has stalled at a time when it is most needed, and that the formal sector, which offers security and fair wages, remains stagnant. 

In the latest episode of the Unmute podcast , corporate strategist and institution-builder Dr Sunil Parekh made a case for a renewed dialogue between industry, government and civil society, arguing that India urgently needs new institutional spaces where the three can jointly address the tensions thrown up by decades of market-led growth. 

A new legal research paper argues that Indian courts have become a central arena for what its author calls the "Hindu majoritarian project" to convert historic Muslim places of worship into temples, through a pattern of civil litigation that departs from established legal principles.

Nine out of India's ten hottest cities globally are located within the country's borders, with the majority concentrated in Uttar Pradesh and the surrounding plains, according to climate and energy expert Soumya Dutta, who has spent three decades studying climate change, environment, rivers and energy issues while working with communities across the world. In a recent detailed discussion, Dutta sought to explain why Indian and South Asian cities are becoming unbearably hot and who bears the brunt of this crisis.

In an important development for intellectual and social activism in Gujarat, a comprehensive memorial book titled "Ek Kiran - Rationalismnu" (A Ray of Rationalism) has been released at a formal function at the Ahmedabad Management Association. The book compiles the definitive thoughts, analytical writings, and lifelong contributions of the late Kiran Nanavati , a pioneering figure who spearheaded the rationalist and humanist movements across the state from the late 1970s until his demise. 

As the Right to Information (RTI) Act completed 21 years since its enactment on June 21, 2005, a detailed analysis of the Central Information Commission's (CIC) Annual Report for 2024-25 has raised questions about reporting accuracy, transparency practices and the overall implementation of the law across Union government institutions.

The world's 65 largest banks collectively committed $906 billion to fossil fuel companies in 2025, an increase of nearly 8 percent from the previous year, according to the seventeenth edition of the Banking on Climate Chaos report released in June 2026. The report , produced by a coalition of environmental and advocacy organisations including Rainforest Action Network , tracks lending and underwriting by major financial institutions to companies across the oil, gas, and coal sectors. Since the Paris Agreement went into force in 2016, the report finds that these banks have together channelled $8.7 trillion into fossil fuels — an amount the authors argue, had it been directed toward renewables, would have made the global energy system significantly more affordable, resilient, and climate-proof.

A massive gathering in the national capital last month has thrust a long-simmering political demand into the mainstream — the removal of Scheduled Tribe (ST) status from tribal individuals who convert to Christianity or Islam. The development has set off alarm bells across Northeast India , where tribal identity, religion, land, and political autonomy are inseparably intertwined.

The heavy military presence and frequent communication blackouts in Jammu and Kashmir are taking a disproportionate toll on female education, reversing years of progress and driving up school dropout rates for girls, according to a recent analysis published in The Conversation . ​Writing for the publication, Shambhavi Siddhi , a PhD candidate in Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies at Western University , highlights that while the Indian government cited " women's empowerment " and the eradication of gender discrimination as key motivations for revoking Jammu and Kashmir's semi-autonomous status in August 2019, the reality on the ground has told a vastly different story for young women seeking an education. ​Rising Dropout Rates and Low Literacy ​According to data presented before the Indian parliament in March 2026, the secondary-level dropout rate for girls in the region peaked at 12.6% during the 2023–24 academic year—surpassing India’s national average of 9....

A shocking episode of mass fish death in East Delhi’s Sanjay Lake has sparked outrage among environmental groups and citizens. While initial reports attributed the incident to the ongoing heatwave and climate change, the South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers and People (SANDRP) has squarely blamed mismanagement and prolonged disruption of water supply as the primary cause.  

A high-stakes controversy has erupted in the Indian Himalayan Region following the abrupt publication and immediate withdrawal of a major infrastructure tender. The National Hydroelectric Power Corporation (NHPC) issued a public tender notice for the proposed "Chenab-Beas Link Tunnel Project (Link 3)" only to cancel it abruptly just three days later.

As Bangladesh approves a vast new barrage, experts caution that unilateral river engineering is outpacing diplomacy, with potentially severe ecological and geopolitical consequences. In a development that has raised alarm among water security experts, Bangladesh has given the green light to one of the largest river engineering projects in its history: the Padma Barrage . The massive structure, designed to restore water to the country’s drought-prone southwest, comes at a moment when upstream neighbours China and India are also accelerating their own dam-building programmes.

India’s economic growth prospects continue to lead the global stage, but escalating geopolitical tensions are mounting severe inflationary and currency pressures on the nation, according to the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) Chief Economists’ Outlook published in May 2026.  

A landmark scientific paper published in Frontiers in Science warns that humanity is actively destabilizing the Earth system upon which all life depends, and issues an urgent call for a coordinated global "Nature Positive" (NP) strategy to halt and reverse biodiversity loss by 2030.

  India's residential real estate market recorded near-flat growth in the January–March quarter of 2026, with sales volumes dipping slightly year-on-year even as property prices hit a historic milestone — crossing ₹10,000 per square foot for the first time.