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The Gujarat government’s reported decision to discontinue the ₹50,000 financial assistance provided to students from Nomadic and Denotified Tribes (N&DTs) pursuing diploma engineering courses has drawn strong criticism from social activists and concerned journalists across the state.

I have been forwarded a Guardian story which surprisingly suggests that, despite generating huge revenues from its controversial Carmichael coal mine in Australia, the Adani Group continues to report losses even three years after commencing operations, which began amidst strong opposition from powerful environmental groups.

This is about Sumit Chakravartty, who passed away in Kolkata last Saturday. One of the most unassuming colleagues during my Patriot-Link days in Delhi, which lasted from 1979 to 1993, Sumit, as we would address him, was perhaps the most polite and soft-spoken among all others.

  A new paper published by the Indian Council of Political Studies (ICPS) presents fresh evidence to argue that Britain deliberately shaped the partition of India and Kashmir’s fate to advance its own imperial interests. Titled “Partition by Design: ‘Kashmir-in-Pakistan’ in the British Strategic Chessboard”, the detailed account by Amit Krishankant Paul  reveals  a concerted British effort in 1947 to create Pakistan as a pro-Western Islamic buffer state aligned against the Soviet Union — with Kashmir envisioned as part of that strategy.

   The other day, I received a message from education rights activist Mitra Ranjan, who claims that a whopping one lakh schools across India have been closed down or merged. This seemed unbelievable at first sight. The message from the activist, who is from the advocacy group Right to Education (RTE) Forum, states that this is happening as part of the implementation of the National Education Policy (NEP), 2020, which floated the idea of school integration/consolidation.

   The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC)’s notification on July 11, 2025, relaxing the 2015 mandate for Flue Gas Desulfurization (FGD) systems in coal-based thermal power plants (TPPs), has drawn sharp criticism for creating a hazardous health divide and undermining India’s environmental commitments. 

  As trade negotiations between India and the United States continue, a prominent advocacy group, the Coalition for a GM-Free India, has voiced strong concerns regarding potential concessions on genetically modified (GM) crops, seeds, and related products. In a letter addressed to Union Minister of Commerce & Industry Shri Piyush Goyal, Rajesh Krishnan, Co-Convenor of the Coalition, has urged the Indian government to resist American pressure and uphold the interests of Indian farmers, consumers, and exporters.