By Mohd. Ziyaullah Khan*  India’s claim to being the world’s largest democracy is increasingly being tested not only in its institutions, but also in its digital public sphere. The internet, once celebrated as a space for free expression and dissent, is steadily being reshaped into a tightly monitored ecosystem.

By Mohd Ziyaullah Khan*  The evolution of information has been rapid and irreversible. We have moved from an era of structured 24-hour news cycles —where trained editors verified facts—to a digital ecosystem in which smartphones deliver instant updates in real time. Today, every individual is effectively a publisher. While this democratisation of information has expanded access and participation, it has also blurred the line between truth and falsehood in unprecedented ways.

By A Representative   Renowned ecologist and veteran United Nations negotiator Dr. S. Faizi has issued an urgent appeal to UN Secretary-General António Guterres, calling for immediate diplomatic intervention to halt escalating conflict in the Persian Gulf. In a formal letter copied to several UN missions, Faizi warned that the lives and livelihoods of 35 million migrant workers—who comprise the vast majority of the population in many Gulf cities—are facing an unprecedented existential crisis.

By Dr. Manoj Kumar Mishra*  The ongoing Middle East conflict underscores a striking divergence between Israeli persistence and American vacillation. While the United States under President Donald Trump oscillated between escalation and negotiation, Israel pursued a consistent military campaign against Iran and its regional allies, demonstrating a willingness to absorb higher costs in pursuit of perceived existential security.

By ​Bhabani Shankar Nayak*  ​U.S. foreign policy, its regional allies, and their aligned forces have led the world into a period of significant instability, economic hardship, and despair by engaging in wars and conflicts between neighboring countries. This strategy appears intended to fragment unity and solidarity among people. Currently, the United States has seen approximately 3,100 anti-war protest events involving over nine million participants. Protests against the prevailing economic system, specific geopolitical ideologies, and interventionist policies have become frequent in London, Paris, and Berlin. 

By Ravi Ranjan*  Shekhar Joshi ’s short story ‘Badbū’ (Stench), a landmark of Hindi's Nayi Kahani movement , and Hari Bhatnagar ’s later story of the same title offer two stark portraits of Indian society’s encounter with industrial modernity and urban decay . Both use the motif of stench not as mere sensory detail but as a profound symbol of human consciousness under pressure—resistance in one, moral rot in the other. Joshi’s narrative unfolds inside a factory where chemical smells threaten to erase the worker’s humanity; Bhatnagar’s exposes the inner filth of a frustrated middle-class home. Together they map the journey from collective working-class awakening in the early industrial era to individual middle-class alienation in post-liberalisation India.

By Jag Jivan   Civil society organisations and stakeholders from across India have presented stark evidence before the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Rural Development and Panchayati Raj , alleging systemic violations of the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement (RFCTLARR) Act, 2013 , particularly in Scheduled Areas and tribal regions.

By Gazala Paul*  In the cracked margins of the Little Rann of Kutch , where the monsoon arrives reluctantly—or not at all—life in Rapar is measured in the language of thirst. This district, with its 97 villages and some 250 hamlets, sits on a salt-rimmed plain that tells a stark story: erratic rains, saline groundwater, thin rocky soils, and a sky that often promises more than it delivers. More than two-thirds of Kutch lies barren. 

By Vikas Meshram*  In a country that proudly calls itself agrarian, the continuing suicides of farmers and agricultural labourers remain a moral and policy failure. The scale of distress is not anecdotal; it is starkly visible in data compiled by institutions such as the Centre for Science and Environment . In 2021 alone, 10,881 people linked to the agricultural sector died by suicide—an average of nearly thirty lives lost every day. This was the highest figure in five years, surpassing even 2016, when 11,379 such deaths were recorded. These numbers are not just statistics; they represent broken households, abandoned fields, and a deepening crisis that refuses to recede.