Campaign groups Ekō, India Civil Watch International (ICWI), and Internet Freedom Foundation (IFF), referring to Meta’s Annual General Meeting (AGM), to be held on May 31, where vote on Proposal 7’s bears “significance for the Indian audience”, has said that its outcome is particularly important against the backdrop of allegations against Facebook for allowing spread of hate speech.

  A report prepared by the top child welfare NGO, Breastfeeding Promotion Network of India (BPNI), has identified as many as 15 offenders allegedly violating the Indian baby food law, the Infant Milk Substitutes Feeding Bottles, and Infant Foods (Regulation of Production, Supply and Distribution) Act 1992, and Amendment Act 2003 (IMS Act), stating, compliance with the law “seems to be dwindling by the day.” Launching its  report  on the occasion of the World Breastfeeding Protection Day, 21st May, BPNI says, “As media, especially social media, gains its strength over the years, there is unrelenting promotion of the products under the scope of this law. Celebrities have joined the businesses to promote baby foods, which are not only ultra-processed food products and mostly high in sugar which makes it inherently harmful and they end up displacing the precious protector the mother’s milk.” Noting that “undermining breastfeeding and complementary feeding through commercial i...

Even as welcoming the Supreme Court order to provide ration cards to eight crore migrant/ unorganised workers, the civil rights organisation Right to Food Campaign (RFC) has expressed the apprehension that an estimated about 10 crore of them would still be left out.

By Rajiv Shah  Speaking at an event, Journalism at Risk: Discussion About Attack on Freedom of Speech and Expression, held at the HKS Surjeet Bhavan, Delhi, several speakers highlighted the need to develop real alternative media amidst “on-going attacks by the Indian state against journalists and independent media.”

  While pointing out that the year 2018 “marked a notable increase in both global and India-specific funding for environment technology”, a new report, released in the light of the World Earth Day, which fell on the 22nd of April 2024, regrets that investment in the Indian Environment Tech sector “experienced a decline to $1.68 billion in 2023, a 32% decrease from 2022.”

  One of the world’s most prestigious health journals, brought out from England, has sharply criticised the Narendra Modi government for being “wholly untrustworthy on Covid-19 health data”, stating, the “official government figures place deaths at more than 530 000, while WHO excess death estimates for 2020 and 2021 are near 4·7 million.” The Lancet in its latest unsigned  editorial commentary  insisted, “The fact that the Indian government attempted to delay the publication of such figures while also censoring criticism during the pandemic seriously undermines its integrity.” The journal said, this was happening at a time when press freedom in India “has diminished since Modi's ascent to power in 2014” (the ranking is down to 161, down 11 in a year), adding, this also happened at a time when “Civil society is increasingly constrained and violent Hindu nationalism is suppressing non-Hindu voices. Without a space for debate, activism and accountability are impossible, and...

Hamirsar lake, Bhuj    Several environmental activists, social workers and academics, most of them belonging to the arid Kutch district of Gujarat, have sought Gujarat authorities’ urgent intervention to “notify, protect, restore and rejuvenate” lakes of the historic Bhuj city, threatening legal action in case they fail to do it. Those who have  signed  a letter, which has been shot to local as well as Gujarat government and Government of India officials, are led by Bhuj-based architect and environmentalist Sandeep Virmani, who is closely associated with Ahmedabad-based NGO Centre for Social Justice.  Supported by top Vadodara-based environmentalist Rohit Prajapati, others signatories include  former Bhuj mayor Arun Vacchrajani, NGO Hunnarshala Foundation executive director Mahavir Acharya, Manishaba Jadeja of the NGO Arid Communities and Technologies, Malshree Gadhvi of the NGO Kutch Mahila Vikas Sangathan, local journalists, social workers, architects, re...

A Gujarat child rights network has claimed that the Right to Education (RTE) Act, which came to effect in 2009, is not being implemented in its letter and spirit in Gujarat even after 13 years. Speaking on behalf of the Child Rights Network Gujarat (CRNG), which is part of the all-India network Campaign Against Child Labour (CACL), senior rights leader Sukhdev Patel said, the “entire emphasis” on RTE has been only on providing 25% seats to weaker section children in private schools, which “forms only 5% of the RTE Act.”