Counterview

By Rajiv Shah  A new study has ranked Ahmedabad as the least climate-resilient major city in the world , highlighting a dangerous gap between the city’s extreme physical vulnerability to climate hazards and its capacity to adapt. Cited by The New York Times , the analysis, conducted by geospatial artificial intelligence firm AlphaGeo , places the Indian city at the top of a list of global urban centres most exposed to climate risk.

By Rajiv Shah   One day after Janmashtami , to be exact, on September 5, during my stay in the US, I was taken to two separate celebrations in a town on the East Coast, ostensibly to keep me engaged among NRIs . While one of them had, apart from the ritualistic puja at a temple in the name of Radhe Krishna , located around a small pond on the outskirts, dance and song performances, it was the second one that interested me the most.

By Mohd. Ziyaullah Khan*  For most Indians, GDP is an intimidating economic acronym buried in government reports and television debates. But GDP is ultimately about something very simple: the size and growth of the economy in which people earn, spend, invest and build their lives. That is why a viral interview featuring former Finance Secretary Subhash Garg has struck such a powerful chord. Garg challenged the government’s interpretation of India’s latest GDP numbers and raised a question that has refused to disappear: How can India's estimated GDP at current prices fall dramatically when a new GDP series is introduced?

By Vidya Bhushan Rawat*  An old mosque has been demolished by the Saharanpur administration under the pretext of a court order that was about to be challenged in a higher court. It is extremely shocking to see how the administration has turned highly biased and quick to invoke the "rule of law" when the alleged violation or crime is committed by Muslims. It keeps a blind eye when lumpen elements from the Hindu community take the law into their own hands, violate it, and rubbish it.

By Syed Ali Mujtaba*  The alleged assault of two female journalists by Delhi Police at the Saket police station on September 3, 2026, has become a talking point across the country. More importantly, it has revived a troubling question: Is there any dignity left for media professionals in India?

By Palla Trinadha Rao*  When a small tribal hamlet in Sikkim can single-handedly hold up a hydropower project worth thousands of crores, whose job is it to say no to the company — and whose job is it to say no to the hamlet? A one-page government note quietly answered that question this week: nobody's job.

By Vikas Meshram*  Amuli Devi Dinesh Garasia, forty-four, lives in the village of Amlipada under the Tanda Mangla panchayat of Sajjangarh tehsil in Banswara district. For the past four years she has been making chemical-free, entirely natural soap in her own home. Today this modest effort has become the economic backbone of her family.

Counterview News   For generations, the seasonal Anjani River has been more than a waterway for the Patharvat community of Waghlud Khurd. It has been their classroom, their workplace, their temple, and their source of life. But today, the riverbed that once rang with the sound of hammers and chisels has fallen quiet. A centuries-old stone craft is dying—not because the river has changed, but because the world around it has, says a  guest blog published in the website of the advocacy group SANDRP (South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers and People).

By Bharat Dogra   “We have progressed in several areas, but the real game changer has been the availability of adequate water. It was only when water scarcity ended that we could move forward in other areas.” These words from Anita, a middle‑aged woman in Shyampur village of Rajasthan’s Karauli district, were deeply meaningful to me. As I complete five decades of travelling through villages struggling with water scarcity, her statement reflects what countless women and elders have told me over the years: water is the foundation on which all other development rests.

By A Representative   Even as the Karnataka High Court continues its stay on the Rs 10,240 crore Sharavati Valley Pumped Storage Project (PSP), the state government has initiated the tendering process for preparation of a Detailed Project Report (DPR) for another 2,500 MW PSP in the Varahi River Valley — located within the Mookambika and Someshwara Wildlife Sanctuaries. 

By Bharat Dogra   India stands at a crossroads. The future of its agriculture—and indeed its food sovereignty—hangs in the balance. The nation’s true strength lies in its potential to lead the world in natural, climate-resilient farming, grounded in agro-ecology, soil and water conservation, and the rich heritage of its indigenous seeds. This is the path to self-reliance and healthy food. Yet, this promising vision is under siege by the hidden and overt representatives of global agribusiness, who are determined to entangle Indian agriculture in a corporate-led model that prioritizes profit over people, sustainability, and nutrition.

By A Representative    The People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), Gujarat, has issued a formal legal notice to the state’s top administrative and police brass demanding immediate criminal, departmental, and disciplinary action against officers of the Nilambaug Police Station in Bhavnagar for allegedly subjecting a murder accused to brutal custodial torture and public humiliation.

Counterview News   A people-led audit of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Mangolpuri’s Y-Block has brought renewed scrutiny to the accuracy of Delhi’s draft electoral rolls, with citizen volunteers and civil-society groups reporting cases in which voters allegedly found themselves wrongly classified as absent, shifted, dead or duplicate, or missing altogether from the draft list.

By A Representative   The Universal Health Organisation (UHO) has filed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) before the Supreme Court of India seeking judicial intervention to ensure that the country's nationwide Human Papillomavirus (HPV) Vaccination Programme complies with constitutional guarantees of informed consent , bodily autonomy, transparency, and accountability.

By Kumar Krishnan*  Spending public money is easy. Ensuring that every rupee is spent prudently, transparently and for the purpose for which it was sanctioned is far more difficult. This becomes particularly important in the health sector, where public expenditure is ultimately meant to serve patients and strengthen an overstretched healthcare system.

By Aravind Yadappanavar*   The contrast could not be starker. On one side stand government schools—crumbling infrastructure, inadequate teachers, and poor sanitary conditions that drive children away. On the other, private institutions flaunt colourful campaign flyers, multi-storied buildings, and children in crisp uniforms with ties, belts, and shoes. This visual dichotomy represents a deeper crisis in Indian education that demands urgent attention.

By Vikas Meshram*  For the first time since 2007, the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination has conducted a detailed review of India's human rights situation, and the findings that have emerged are deeply serious and thought-provoking. India had not submitted its report to this Committee for nearly two decades, which makes this review significant in more ways than one.

By Bhabani Shankar Nayak*  The anti-intellectualism of authoritarian leaders is not new. From the McCarthy era to the Trump administration in the United States, from Indira Gandhi’s Emergency to Narendra Modi’s India, from military-mullah rule in Pakistan to Thatcherite Britain, and from the reactionary right’s advance across Europe to the dictatorships of Africa, the Middle East, and Latin America—one pattern repeats: illiberal regimes consistently display a visceral disdain for intellectuals and for critical inquiry itself.

By Vijay Prashad   On 2 September, fragments from a US missile tore through the roof of a wedding celebration in Kuhestak, in Iran’s southern county of Sirik. Four people were killed, including a child, and sixty-eight were wounded. The United States has made a custom of bombing weddings – in Afghanistan, Iraq, Yemen, and now Iran. When US Vice-President J. D. Vance was asked about the dead, he shrugged: ‘Things happen’. The sentence should be entered into the record of this war. Imperialism turns other people’s catastrophes into the passive voice.

Counterview News   The environmental advocacy group South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers and People (SANDRP) has published a hard-hitting analysis of Pune's ongoing River Front Development (RFD) project , framing its concerns around fundamental questions that challenge the project's technical, ecological, and legal foundations.

By Sanjay Swati Bhave*  September 3 was the very last day of The Times of India’s office on Ashram Road. The Times is now moving out of Fadia Chambers and into a part of some very large building in the area behind ISKCON Temple and Mall. The Ahmedabad office, housed in the four-storeyed Fadia Chambers on Ashram Road, was itself a landmark of the city.

By M.G. Devasahayam*  Meta—the parent company of Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp—recently agreed to a US$16.68 billion settlement in US courts over allegations that its platforms contributed to mental‑health harms among children. The settlement emerged during a federal trial involving claims brought by 29 states, local governments, school districts and individuals. Meta, along with Snapchat, YouTube and TikTok, continues to face thousands of lawsuits alleging that these companies knowingly designed features that are addictive to children and adolescents, thereby exacerbating a nationwide youth mental‑health crisis.

By Aravind Yadappanavar*   The irony is as bitter as it is devastating. In a year when the monsoon delivered deficit rainfall across Bihar, the state found itself submerged under one of its most severe flood crises in recent memory. The catastrophe of September 2024 was not born from an excess of rain, but from an excess of human hubris. The rivers that flow from Nepal did what they have always done during the monsoon: they swelled with water. But the response from Bihar's flood management infrastructure was nothing short of catastrophic. This was not a natural disaster; it was a man-made one, meticulously engineered by decades of flawed policy, short-sighted planning, and an almost religious adherence to the false gospel of structural flood control.

By A Representative   A glacial lake outburst flood in the Nepal-Tibet region of the Himalayas, which has killed more than a thousand people and left several thousand still missing ten days on, has prompted a veteran Indian power sector professional to write to three Union ministers and the Vice-Chairperson of NITI Aayog, urging a comprehensive review of the country's plans to expand dam-based hydropower and pumped-storage projects (PSPs).

By A Representative   The West Bengal human rights group Banglar Manabadhikar Suraksha Mancha (MASUM) has approached the National Human Rights Commission of India, the Supreme Court of India and senior West Bengal authorities seeking an independent investigation into the alleged illegal detention, disputed identification as a Bangladeshi national, attempted push-back across the India-Bangladesh border and custodial ill-treatment of a 66-year-old man from Uttar Dinajpur district.

By Biljana Vankovska    A few days ago, when I landed at Budapest Airport on my way to an international conference devoted to serious questions of international politics, the first thing I saw was a huge civilian aircraft bearing a name unfamiliar to me: Isair. It was not difficult to guess, but I checked anyway. It was an Israeli air carrier.

By Rezgar Akrawi   On 25 August 2026, Mazloum Abdi announced from the People's Palace in Damascus the end of the mission of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and their dissolution as an independent military force, alongside the dissolution of the Autonomous Administration and its affiliated military and civilian structures and their integration into the institutions of the Syrian state. This announcement followed the extensive military operation in January, which paved the way for a negotiating track that culminated in the integration of its forces and institutions within the Syrian state.

By Peter Dziedzic*  Kashmir remains one of the world’s most contentious geopolitical flash points . In April 2025, India and Pakistan, two nuclear-armed countries that share a tense border, came dangerously close to a major confrontation after militants attacked Indian tourists near the popular resort town of Pahalgam in Indian Kashmir . Against this backdrop, media coverage of Kashmir often focuses on violence and division.

By Bharat Dogra   We are all familiar with how painful it is for a farmer to lose his land, so one can imagine the inner turbulence of a farmer who has not only been forced to sell his ancestral land due to economic compulsions but, in addition, is forced by continuing economic difficulties to accept temporary work as a landless farm worker on the same plot of land.

Counterview News   A bombshell study by the Centre for Financial Accountability (CFA) has revealed that Delhi's four Waste-to-Energy (WTE) incineration plants score a staggering 100 out of 100 on the Central Pollution Control Board's (CPCB) own Pollution Index — making them more toxic than coal-fired power plants, open-cast coal mining, and copper smelters — yet the regulator quietly moved them into a newly created "Blue" category last year that strips away critical environmental safeguards.

By A Representative   Rev. Adriene Thorne , senior minister of Manhattan's Riverside Church , and Imam Shamsi Ali , director of the Jamaica Muslim Center in Queens, have said they were deceived into taking part in events surrounding Mohan Bhagwat 's August 29 appearance at Madison Square Garden , where the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh ( RSS ) chief addressed roughly 5,000 Hindu Americans and Indian expatriates under the banner "One World One Humanity."

By Raj Kumar Sinha*  The catastrophic flood and landslide in Nepal's Bhote Koshi river region on August 26, 2026, brought the growing climate vulnerability of the Himalayan region to the world's attention. The tragedy, triggered by the collapse of a glacier and ice-rock debris, wreaked havoc from the Nepal-China border to the Trishuli River. By September 3, more than 1,252 people had been reported dead in Nepal, with over 4,200 still missing. Nearly 20,000 homes need to be rebuilt. The government's preliminary estimate of economic losses stands at approximately $2.56 billion, while earlier projections for reconstruction and rehabilitation costs ranged from $4 to 5 billion.

By Vidya Bhushan Rawat*  There is a disturbing tendency among India's self-styled liberals to dig up the past not to understand it, but to score political points in the present. The latest target of this historical lampooning is the Rajput practice of Jauhar—the collective self-immolation by women facing certain defeat at the hands of invading armies. Those who denounce it today as barbaric or patriarchal are guilty of the same sin they accuse others of: viewing a complex historical reality through the narrow lens of contemporary politics.

By Dr. Jayant Kumar*  The devastation along the Nepal–Tibet border is a stark reminder of how quickly a disaster in the high Himalayas can overwhelm normal response systems. Roads and bridges have been destroyed, settlements isolated and critical infrastructure damaged. Rescue teams are operating in difficult terrain, confronting disrupted communications, unstable slopes and severely limited physical access. The human cost is immense, and the full extent of the losses is still emerging.

By Osman Sher*  There is a famous axiom relating to the history of the Indian subcontinent: "Hinduism has a wonderful power of assimilation; it has always conquered its conquerors." When the Aryans , Greeks, Scythians, Parthians, Kushans, Huns, and other invaders came here, they could not withstand the overwhelming embrace of the forceful Vedic religion ; they were absorbed into it and became completely Hindu. But this maxim is also untrue. 

By Harsh Thakor*  Eric Hobsbawm (1917–2012) was among the most formidable European intellectuals of the twentieth century. His books—particularly the landmark Ages series—became canonical on both sides of the Atlantic, shaping how generations understood the making of the modern world. Since his death, Richard Evans produced an authorized biography, but little else has emerged to critically reassess Hobsbawm's vast intellectual legacy. Emile Chabal's The Age of Hobsbawm fills this gap with penetrating archival research and a refreshingly objective lens.

By Ravi Ranjan*  Gajanan Madhav Muktibodh's poem "Bhūl-Ghalatī" (Mistake-Error) stands as a profound meditation on the intricate relationship between power, consciousness, and resistance. The poem opens with the striking image of "Mistake-Error" seated upon the throne of the heart, clad in armour, with weapons gleaming and eyes flashing like sharp stones. This is not merely a description of political tyranny but a psychological and moral diagnosis of how power establishes itself within human consciousness. 

Counterview News   A devastating catastrophe across the Himalayas has prompted river and dam advocacy group South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers and People (SANDRP) to publish a scathing assessment of regional infrastructure planning, warning that planners and governments are committing fatal errors by treating Himalayan flood disasters merely as extreme water surges rather than catastrophic debris events . 

By Himadri Priya*  The catastrophic debris flow that struck the Tibet–Nepal border region on August 26, 2026, was one of the most serious Himalayan disasters in recent years. What began as a major collapse involving rock, glacier ice and other mountain material rapidly developed into a cascading disaster, generating an avalanche, debris flow and destructive flooding across a wider transboundary region.

By Bharat Dogra   The recent Nepal floods are a profound tragedy, and their immense destruction has caused distress on a massive scale. The victims will require long-term support to recover from their losses and the shock of the disaster. Neighboring India, which has also suffered from this calamity, has responded promptly with assistance—a commendable effort that should continue over an extended period.

By Shankar Sharma  India stands at a critical juncture in determining the long-term structure of its electricity sector. The country must simultaneously meet rapidly evolving electricity requirements, improve energy access and affordability, enhance energy security, reduce dependence on fossil fuels, address climate change, conserve increasingly stressed land and water resources, and ensure that the transition to a low-carbon electricity system remains socially and economically sustainable.

By Bhabani Shankar Nayak   The job posting sounds noble: “Seeking passionate self-starter. Unpaid. College credit available. Great for your résumé.” Every year, millions of young people—students, recent graduates, career-changers—sign up for positions just like it. They staff food banks, tutor children, clean riverbanks, and code for startups, all in the name of “giving back” or “gaining experience.” They are told they are volunteers. In truth, they have become entries in a hidden ledger of capitalism, where goodwill is logged as free labor and solidarity is booked as a business expense.

By A Representative   Ahead of the 81st United Nations General Assembly, regional experts, jurists, and civil society leaders issued an urgent call to defend women’s and girls’ rights against an increasingly coordinated pushback fueled by narratives of family, tradition, and sovereignty. Speaking at a recent SHE & Rights session on gender equality, health rights, and human rights accountability, advocates highlighted the pressing need to turn established regional legal frameworks into lived realities while confronting efforts to erode protections across Africa and globally. The event was jointly hosted by the Global Center for Health Diplomacy and Inclusion and Citizen News Service alongside international partner organizations.

By Bharat Dogra   Poet, author, farmer, philosopher— Wendell Berry (1934–2026) was all this and more: a conscience-keeper, a voice of morality and ethics in a country increasingly at war with others and with itself. He breathed his last on August 31 at a time when our deeply troubled and badly threatened world most needed his essential message of peace and justice. Not just in his own country—the USA—but across the entire world, his sage words—crafted with the creativity only an exceptionally gifted writer and poet can achieve—have growing relevance and significance.

Counterview News   Dalit women's autobiographical writing in India is emerging as a formidable archive of political resistance, functioning less as personal memoir and more as collective testimony to centuries of caste, gender and class oppression, according to a comprehensive analysis by Professor Garima Srivastava . 

By A Representative    In a strongly-worded open letter to the government, a collective of 108 former top civil servants has raised serious concerns over the design and conduct of the upcoming Census 2027, warning that the expanded questionnaire risks compromising the confidentiality and credibility of India's foundational statistical exercise.

By A Representative   Congress leader and AICC national spokesperson Shaktisinh Gohil has alleged that the Narendra Modi government’s newly approved “Samudra Manthan” scheme for offshore exploration has been designed to benefit the Adani Group, and demanded that the scheme be scrapped or its proposed ₹84,084 crore outlay be diverted to state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC).

By A Representative   Women engaged in manual scavenging gathered in the national capital to counter the Union government’s official stance in Parliament that the practice has been eradicated in India.

By Aditya Sharma*  Dr P K Gupta's recent article ( The 'Dr' debate masks a larger crisis in allied-health education , Counterview , 1 August 2026)  on the use of the "Dr" prefix by physiotherapists reads, on its surface, as a balanced take on a genuinely difficult question. But a closer look shows that it revives a set of arguments that were put before Parliament during the drafting of the National Commission for Allied and Healthcare Professions Act, 2021 (NCAHP Act) — and that Parliament's own Standing Committee considered and rejected. This response draws on the Committee's 117th Report and the text of the Act itself to lay out why.

By Ram Puniyani*  The Sarsanghchalak (Chief) of the RSS, Mohan Bhagwat, has undertaken a tour of three countries abroad. The first stop was the United States, where, apart from a few other engagements, his major event was to address a gathering at Madison Square Garden in New York. It was expected that over 5,000 people would attend. The stated objective of the visit was to dispel misconceptions about the RSS, engage in dialogue, and spread a message of universal oneness.

By A Representative   A group of students and youth activists in Ahmedabad has issued a set of demands to the authorities after alleging that a peaceful reading session was violently disrupted by members of the Bajrang Dal in broad daylight on August 27, with police allegedly standing by and later diluting the First Information Report to protect the accused.