Counterview

Counterview News  A catastrophic flood disaster across Nepal’s Himalayan river valleys has triggered urgent international scrutiny over the role of multilateral lenders and development finance institutions. According to an extensive investigation published by the South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers and People (SANDRP), international financiers—including the World Bank Group’s International Finance Corporation (IFC), the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), and the Export-Import Bank of China —pushed forward major hydropower projects in disaster-prone valleys despite documented warnings, recurring historical floods, and unheeded safety recommendations.

By Dr. Jayant Kumar  When the flood came, the sky was clear. That is the cruel paradox of the Himalayas. A glacier collapses. A landslide dams a river, then releases it in a wall of water. An avalanche crashes into a lake and sends a surge racing downstream. There is no storm to warn you. There is only sudden, roaring destruction—crossing borders in minutes, indifferent to the lines humans have drawn on maps.

By Madhab Pant*  At roughly 8:30 AM on 26 August 2026, a wall of water, mud, ice, and massive boulders roared down the Lhende Khola into the Bhotekoshi and Trishuli river systems. The surge struck without local rainfall or warning sirens, catching border communities like Timure, mid-morning. Initial reports mistook the ground tremors for an earthquake, but satellite and seismic data later confirmed the real trigger: a high-altitude collapse of rock and ice near Langtang Lirung, on the Tibetan side, spanning nearly one square kilometer and generating a ground shock equivalent to a magnitude 5.2 quake. 

By Fr. Cedric Prakash SJ*  I am Malala: I was born on 12 July 1997 as Malala Yousafzai in the Swat District of Pakistan's northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. My family was lower-middle-class. It was certainly not easy to make both ends meet. My father was an educationist and ran a girls' school in my village; my mother was a housewife. We are three children: I have two younger brothers. The fact is that my parents did not have enough money for a hospital birth for me, so my mother had to give birth to me at home with the help of neighbours. My name 'Malala' means 'grief-stricken', after Malalai of Maiwand, a famous Pashtun poet and warrior woman from southern Afghanistan.

By Kumar Krishnan*  The demand to dismantle the Farakka Barrage has returned to the centre of a wider debate over the future of the Ganga, but activists gathered in Bhagalpur over the weekend made an important distinction: removing Farakka, they said, should not mean ending the sharing of Ganga waters with Bangladesh. The two-day national public dialogue, organised by the Ganga Mukti Andolan on August 29 and 30 in Bhagalpur, brought together river activists, environmentalists, social workers and representatives of river-dependent communities from Bihar, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh and Jharkhand. Several senior activists also joined the discussions online.

By Bhabani Shankar Nayak*  Recent reports indicate that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is being worshipped at several locations across India, both within existing temples and at new sites. A "Modi Mandir" is reportedly under consideration in Patna, Bihar. These developments raise important questions about the intersection of political leadership and religious devotion in contemporary India, and they invite comparison with historical precedents in which political leaders have claimed divine sanction or encouraged veneration.

By Syed Ali Mujtaba   When the chief of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) takes the stage at Madison Square Garden in New York, the world listens. The venue, the audience, the oratory—it is a production designed for a global audience. But when Mohan Bhagwat spoke on August 30, 2026, his message of "unity in diversity" rang hollow. At a time when the persecution of Muslims in India has become a global headline,

By Bharat Dogra, Jagmohan Singh  As Punjab hurtles toward its state assembly elections in February 2027, the familiar hum of political machinery has already begun. Political parties are busy calculating electoral arithmetic, forging potential alliances, and grappling with internal fissures. Simultaneously, various sections of society—from government employees to farmers—are amplifying their demands, hoping to capitalize on the pre-election season.

By Martin Macwan*  In a 10-by-12-foot, single-room hut on the riverbank, 28-year-old Surajmuni lived with her children. At 5:00 a.m., she felt as though she were having a terrifying dream. But it was no dream. Chaos and cries echoed everywhere. Her husband had gone to India to earn money. The police arrived, grabbed her children by the arms, and took them to a safe location.

By Dr P K Gupta*  India’s allied-health professions have long operated in a fragmented landscape of universities, hospitals, State authorities and private institutions, each with its own nomenclature, curriculum and standards. The National Commission for Allied and Healthcare Professions Act, 2021 was meant to correct this by creating a unified national framework for education, professional regulation and institutional recognition. Few dispute the need for such oversight. The real question is whether standardisation is quietly becoming synonymous with longer courses, additional internships and new professional titles—changes that risk masking deeper gaps in clinical training, institutional capacity and affordability.

By Chintan Dave   India’s healthcare AI story is entering a more consequential phase. The question is no longer whether artificial intelligence can read a medical image, summarize a clinical history, flag an unusual insurance claim or help a doctor make sense of complex information. We increasingly know that it can. The harder question is whether India can turn these capabilities into a trusted, governed and scalable part of healthcare delivery for more than a billion people.

Counterview News  As Europe grapples with an unprecedented summer heatwave, the fragility of nuclear power's dependence on water cooling has been laid bare — with 13 French reactors forced offline and similar shutdowns rippling across Hungary, Romania, and beyond. The crisis has prompted a stark warning from Indian power and climate policy analyst Shankar Sharma , who argues that if such failures can occur in Europe's relatively cooler climate, the risks for water-stressed India are orders of magnitude higher.

By Bhabani Shankar Nayak*  On August 24, 2024, the Trump administration announced the initiation of "Operation Economic Outcast." The stated objective of the operation is to fully isolate the Islamic Republic of Iran, along with any country that enables Iran's economic participation in the global system. According to official statements, the policy targets five key sectors: digital assets, technology, gold, aviation, and shipping.

  By Atanu Roy*  As India races to become a global digital powerhouse, a quiet crisis is unfolding beneath the surface. The same water that cools the nation's data centres is desperately needed by communities still struggling for a safe drink. The choice isn't between technology and survival—it's about getting the sequencing right. The Fundamental Question Safe drinking water or AI data centres? For policymakers in the developing world, this might sound like a false binary, but it is rapidly becoming one of the defining dilemmas of our time. The two are not truly competing needs—they serve vastly different levels of development. Drinking water is a basic human necessity. Safe water directly affects survival, public health, education, and productivity. According to the World Health Organization, as recently as 2024, approximately 2.1 billion people still lacked safely managed drinking-water services, with low-income countries facing particularly severe gaps. Unsafe water con...

By Ravi Ranjan*  Raghuvir Sahay’s poem "Against Suicide" (Ātmahatyā ke viruddha) resists easy categorization. It is not merely a political protest, nor simply an existential cry. It is, more precisely, a work of poetic sociology—an attempt to read the hidden human textures of Indian democracy through the compressed, sensuous language of poetry. Where sociology dissects institutions, poetry restores the feeling of what it means to live inside them. Sahay does both. He examines the academy, the hospital, the newspaper, the university, and the political platform not as abstract structures, but as living mechanisms that slowly erase the very citizens they claim to serve.

By Mohd. Ziyaullah Khan  Rahul Gandhi’s newly assertive politics has given him a sharper edge against the Modi government. But as he rises on the strength of a youth-led revolt, his greatest challenge will be ensuring that political ambition does not turn into political appropriation.

By Nava Thakuria*  As the Assam government plans to notify a site-specific eco-sensitive zone (ESZ, or ecologically fragile area) around Kaziranga National Park and Tiger Reserve, public debate has intensified in both mainstream and social media.

Counterview News   Deloitte India 's third edition of its people analytics maturity study , titled " Future of Work and People Analytics Maturity – The Indian Story " and released on 29 July 2026, offers a detailed, data-backed picture of how Indian organisations are progressing—and struggling—with AI-enabled workforce transformation . The report is based on insights from over 85 organisations across India and assesses how businesses are using people analytics to support workforce transformation and business decision-making.

Counterview News    In the rugged, resource-scarce hills of Gujarat’s Panchmahals district —one of India’s most underdeveloped regions, marked by high poverty, poor nutrition indicators, and large tribal, Dalit, and Muslim populations—women who once stayed confined to household labour and early marriages have forged a different path. Through ANANDI (Area Networking and Development Initiatives) and three grassroots women’s organisations in Devgadh Baria , Panam , and Gogamba , they have moved from isolated survival to organised collective power.

By A Representative   The People's Union for Civil Liberties, Gujarat , and the Student and Youth Collective Ahmedabad have condemned a mob assault on a peaceful reading assembly in Vastrapur , calling it a premeditated, communally motivated hate crime. On the evening of August 27, 2026 , about 40 to 50 students and citizens gathered at AUDA Garden for a silent reading session organized by the Student and Youth Collective and Gujarat Reads Anyway. 

By Pramod Ranjan*  On August 19, 2026, violence erupted in Shillong, Meghalaya, during a black-flag bike rally organised by the Khasi Students' Union (KSU). Statues of Swami Vivekananda and Subhas Chandra Bose were damaged in the course of the protests. Bose's statue was toppled, while the glass enclosure around Vivekananda's statue was smashed. Vehicles were vandalised, and there were allegations that people were attacked.

By Harsh Thakor*  Debiprasad Chattopadhyaya (1918–1993) -- whose seminal work "What is Living and What Is Dead in Indian Philosophy" completes 50 years in 2026 -- occupies a distinctive position in the landscape of Indian philosophy, primarily for his sustained efforts to examine the tradition through a Marxist lens. Born into an illustrious family in undivided Bengal, he excelled academically, topping the University of Calcutta in both his Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy Honours in 1939 and his Master of Arts in Philosophy in 1942. 

By Himadri Priya*  Arunachal Pradesh stands at a critical crossroads. Its vast rivers, forests, mountains and hydropower potential can undoubtedly contribute to economic growth. But development must never be confused with the indiscriminate conquest of nature. The accelerating push to construct large dams across the fragile Himalayan landscape appears increasingly ill‑advised—especially when recent disasters have shown how unpredictable and destructive mountain environments can be. The lesson is not that development should stop, but that it must remain within the limits set by nature.

By Pooja Gupta  The Siang Upper Multipurpose Project (SUMP), proposed in Arunachal Pradesh 's Upper Siang district, is set to become India's largest hydropower project—a nearly 11,000 MW structure conceived to regulate the flow of the Siang River, which becomes the Brahmaputra downstream in Assam. 

By Sakshi Gupta*   India’s rapid digital expansion once promised to democratize learning. When COVID‑19 shut down classrooms, online platforms like DIKSHA , SWAYAM , PM eVIDYA and One Class One Channel became lifelines for millions of students. The National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 embraced technology as a central pillar of educational reform, imagining a future where digital tools would bridge gaps and deliver quality learning to every child. 

By A Representative   With the August 31 deadline set by the Supreme Court approaching, independent experts, conservationists, farmer representatives and Adivasi leaders have urged the Supreme Court-appointed High-Powered Committee on the Aravallis to seek an extension to undertake a comprehensive scientific assessment and a more inclusive public consultation process.

By Dr Jayant Kumar*   Assam’s recurring floods raise a question beyond flood control: How can we make people, infrastructure and livelihoods less vulnerable when the flood inevitably comes? After more than four and a half decades working with disaster-affected communities, I have learnt that disasters become devastating when several systems fail together. Some ideas deserve consideration:

By Raj Kumar Sinha*  In today's times, there are certain issues that are constantly talked about and discussed, yet no visible impact seems to be made. Beyond water, soil, and pollution, one crisis that continues to be overlooked is waste. Like other life-threatening problems, waste too is gradually moving toward burying and obliterating us. After the Kanwar Yatra in Haridwar, approximately 8,000 tonnes of waste were left behind on the riverbanks, including bottles filled with urine. 

By Vikas Meshram*  In the Sailana block of Ratlam district lies the small village of Govardhanpura. This is where Durga Maida lives with her husband and four daughters. Their livelihood depended on just one bigha of land—far too little to feed a family of six. Growing enough grain for the year was impossible, and even meeting daily expenses was a constant struggle. Alongside farming, Durga kept livestock and took up wage labour whenever she could. Hard work was never lacking, but income always was. Month after month, the accounts failed to balance, forcing her to borrow. Looking back, Durga says those days felt heavy and hopeless; farming offered no promise, and there was no sign of change. Her story mirrored the reality of almost every small farmer in the area.

By Prof Mathew James  A new diplomatic storm is gathering between Washington and New Delhi — this time centered not on trade, defense, or geopolitics, but on the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the Hindu nationalist organization widely seen as the ideological backbone of India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party. The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), a bipartisan federal advisory body, has renewed its call for targeted sanctions against RSS members, timing its intervention to coincide with a high‑profile visit to the United States by the organization’s chief, Mohan Bhagwat.

By Vijay Prashad   The gravest danger in the present war is not that Iran has already decided to manufacture a nuclear weapon. There is no verified evidence of such a decision. The danger is that another major US escalation could convince Tehran that remaining a non-nuclear state inside the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) no longer provides protection, recognition, or even the elementary security that the treaty was supposed to guarantee. Washington may therefore produce precisely the outcome that it claims to be trying to prevent.

By Maisa Bascuas   On 20 August, during the 23rd edition of the Council of the Americas in Buenos Aires, Javier Milei concluded his speech to the business elite by blaming the 'little green scarves' and voluntary termination of pregnancy (VTP) for the declining birth rate, the slowdown in economic growth, and the crisis in the pension system. The tactic is politically effective: it reduces a global demographic trend to a local scapegoat.

By A. V. Yadappanavar*  India’s tribal communities have long lived at the margins of society, shaped by histories of displacement, fragile livelihoods and limited access to essential services. Among them, the Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTGs) represent the most delicate thread in the country’s social fabric. Many continue to depend on forests and natural ecosystems for survival, while others have been pushed toward urban centres in search of work. Their vulnerability is often intensified by isolation, demographic fragility and the pressures of modern development. Nowhere is this more evident than in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, home to several indigenous groups whose futures hinge on the protection of their territories, cultures and autonomy.

By Mohd. Ziyaullah Khan   Ever since Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi spoke to female students in Maharashtra on August 22, 2026, urging them to “smash patriarchy” and reject the “Manusmriti mindset,” a storm has erupted in BJP circles. His assertion that women belong to themselves—not to their fathers, husbands or sons—has provoked a predictable rush among BJP supporters to defend the Manusmriti. This should surprise no one. For years, the politics of cultural nationalism has selectively elevated ancient texts as symbols of civilisational pride. But reverence becomes dangerous when it collides with the foundational values of a modern democracy.

By Ram Puniyani*  In pre-colonial India, Hindu society was broadly governed by the Manusmriti, where caste and gender hierarchy formed the core of its values. During the colonial period, as education, transport and modern administration took root, the seeds of democracy began to sprout. These changes were oriented around the emerging concept of secular nationalism. The various components of this transformation included the struggle for workers' rights, the expansion of education, the empowerment of Dalits and women, and the concept of equal citizenship for all, irrespective of religion, caste, language or gender. 

By Vidya Bhushan Rawat*  Rahul Gandhi’s Chhatrokigoonj programme may be drawing noticeable enthusiasm from urban middle‑class youth, but whether it will help the Congress in the long run remains an open question. His new avatar—colourful shirts, casual interactions, and a more relaxed public persona—does resonate with young Indians. He is also asking several important questions. 

By Syed Ali Mujtaba   An extraordinary event at the Press Club of India in New Delhi, where a cutout of Prime Minister Narendra Modi was depicted as Lord Ram and worshipped, has raised serious questions about the sanctity and credibility of an institution that is expected to uphold the independence of the press.

By Bharat Dogra   Activist, teacher, and lawyer—Pradip Prabhu contributed immensely in his many-sided roles, with the one unifying thread being his deep commitment to justice. It is rare to witness such a combination: someone who went to jail and risked his life in struggles for various oppressed communities, particularly for the rights of tribal people, while also serving with distinction on several government committees; teaching students at top institutes and training senior officers, while at the same time fasting for many days to press for legislation protecting tribal rights.

By Bhabani Shankar Nayak*  The contemporary left-wing political landscape presents a paradox of proliferation and paralysis. In the United States, more than ten left-democratic groups and coalitions operate simultaneously, while Britain hosts approximately twenty-two distinct active socialist and communist organizations. 

By Mohd. Ziyaullah Khan   The most worrying number is not 8.7 crore. It is how easily we can turn that number into a joke. Of late, a number has been circulating on social media: 8.7 crore Indians aged 15–29 are neither studying, working nor undergoing training. The number is real, but the viral interpretation is often misleading.

By Sandeep Pandey   Under the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009, a District Education Officer can impose a fine on a school operating without government approval. Yet a private university can apparently run professional courses without the requisite recognition, leaving hundreds of students to face an uncertain future.

By A Representative   A controversy over two celebrated books has plunged a private school in Ahmedabad into a political firestorm, drawing in right-wing groups and the state education department. The incident has now sparked a widespread solidarity campaign, with hundreds of citizens defending the school’s academic freedom .

By Kumar Krishnan*   “Khet bachega, gaon bachega, desh bachega.” (Save the fields, save the village, save the country.) This was the clear message from farmers who took to the streets of Patna on August 25 to protest the proposed Pataliputra Greenfield Satellite Township. Their protest is not merely about land. It is about livelihood, ownership, dignity, and the right to have a say in decisions that can fundamentally alter their lives.

By A Representative   The Bihar unit of the People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) convened a public hearing at the Indian Medical Association (IMA) Hall, Gandhi Maidan, where victims of police violence testified to a pattern of systematic repression against student protesters that panelists characterized not merely as police brutality, but as "state brutality."

By Harsh Thakor  Divya Mahajan, a 15-year-old girl from Nashik, created history by becoming the youngest ever to swim across the North Channel in 15 hours and 50 minutes on August 23. It was one of the proudest moments in Indian open water swimming, writing a new chapter in Indian sporting history.

By Irfan Engineer*  On 25th August, Dr. Ram Puniyani has completed 81 years. After its founding chairperson, Dr. Asghar Ali Engineer, he has been the longest-serving Chairperson of the Centre for Study of Society and Secularism (CSSS), an organisation established to promote communal harmony.

By Shamsul Islam*  On August 29, 2026, Mohan Bhagwat , the chief of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), is scheduled to address an estimated 5,000 Indian-Americans at Madison Square Garden in New York. The event, billed as part of the RSS centenary "Universal Oneness Celebrations," arrives with disturbing historical echoes. As researcher Pieter Friedrich has noted, it was in 1939 that Nazis filled the same arena (photo) under the banner of "Americanism." Now, the RSS—India's largest Hindu nationalist organization—will occupy the same space preaching unity, even as its own ideological archives tell a starkly different story.

By Mohd. Ziyaullah Khan   There is an old saying: “Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel.” Samuel Johnson was not criticising love for one’s country; he was warning against those who weaponise patriotic symbolism to escape accountability. In India today, that warning feels uncomfortably relevant.

By A Representative   A scathing letter addressed to Gujarat's Labour Secretary has brought to light alarming discrepancies in the collection and disbursement of the Building and Other Construction Workers' Welfare Cess, with activists citing a recent Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report to demand urgent corrective measures for the benefit of the state's estimated 25 lakh unorganized construction workers.

By Kumar Krishnan*  When river water enters a farmer’s field, it is called a flood; when the same river runs short in summer, it becomes a drought. This is the paradox of the Ganga in Bihar. Villages along its banks are battered year after year by floods and erosion, yet in summer the State faces shortages for irrigation, drinking water, navigation and fisheries. The Ganga cannot be understood merely in cubic feet per second. Its true balance sheet must be measured in farms, fish, soil, groundwater, villages and the lives of communities that depend on it. This contradiction has gained renewed urgency as the 1996 India–Bangladesh Ganga Water Treaty approaches its 30-year review in December 2026. JD(U) working president and Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Kumar Jha argues that the treaty should not be renewed in its current form. Instead, he calls for a scientific assessment of basin-wide water requirements up to 2050, with due weight to Bihar’s needs for agriculture, drinking wate...

By Sakshi Gupta*  When children return to school after years of disruption, the most basic question is not whether they are enrolled, whether teachers have been trained, or whether schools have received new teaching materials. The real question is much simpler: can they read, write and do basic mathematics?