Counterview

Counterview News   A new report by the advocacy group South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers and People (SANDRP) has warned that China's proposed 60,000 MW Medog hydropower project and India's proposed 11,000 MW Siang Upper Multipurpose Project (SUMP) are being planned in one of the world's most geologically unstable and disaster-prone regions, potentially exposing millions of people downstream to serious risks.

By A Representative   A public hearing organised by the Lok Swashasan Andolan in Bhopal has highlighted widespread violations of the Forest Rights Act (FRA) in Madhya Pradesh, with tribal and other forest-dependent communities reporting forced evictions, demolition of homes, destruction of crops, arbitrary rejection of claims and displacement in the name of forest conservation and development projects.

By Dr Ajit Kumar Babu   The Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Amendment Act, 2026, has brought the fiscal relationship between the Union and mineral-producing States back into focus. The Act, which came into force on 22 August 2026, restricts State governments from imposing taxes, cesses or other levies on mineral rights and mineral-bearing lands except under conditions or restrictions prescribed by the Central Government. While the Union government argues that the change will bring greater certainty to the mining sector, concerns remain about its implications for the fiscal powers of mineral-producing States.

By Vikas Meshram*  In Banswara and the tribal belt around it, one scene has repeated itself for years. The kharif harvest is cut, and a few days later the men of the house tie up their bundles and set out for Gujarat. Sometimes the whole family goes; sometimes the children stay with their grandparents. Small landholdings, rain-fed farming and a scarcity of work nearby push livelihood far from the threshold of home. Into this reality, the organisation Vaagdhara brought women's "Saksham Samuhs" to village after village. These groups are not grand buildings or heavy schemes; they rest on something simple: sitting together once a month, listening to one another's troubles and finding a way forward with the resources already lying in one's own courtyard. The stories below come from different villages, yet a common thread runs through them all: when confidence meets the right information, the same land and the same hands begin to shape a new future. Varet's Kamla De...

By Bharat Dogra   Three years is a very short time in the history of any village, and it is generally considered very difficult to bring changes of durable benefit in such a limited period. Yet a project nearing completion in Jaitpur block of Mahoba district in Uttar Pradesh, covering about 50 villages, suggests otherwise. If efforts closely linked to the actual needs of villagers are taken forward sincerely and in thoughtful, friendly ways, significant and durable benefits can be realized even within about three years.

By Raj Kumar Sinha*  The history of tribal communities and their ancestors cannot be confined to any particular date or period. It is a continuous process through which indigenous communities have preserved their identity by learning from the struggles of their ancestors, their relationship with nature and their traditions. For thousands of years, tribal communities have lived in harmony with forests, rivers and mountains. This way of life and accumulated knowledge continue to form the foundation of their culture.

By A Representative   As the world approaches World AMR Awareness Week (WAAW) 2026 (November 18-24), global health leaders are issuing a stark warning: the gap between political commitments and on-the-ground implementation in the fight against antimicrobial resistance (AMR) remains dangerously wide. With bacterial AMR already associated with more than 4.7 million deaths in 2021, the World Health Organization (WHO) and its Quadripartite partners are urging immediate, funded, and measurable action across human, animal, agricultural, and environmental sectors.

By A Representative   A group of civil society organisations, social activists and citizens in Telangana has called on the state government to suspend its technology and business partnership with Israel and put on hold a T-Hub meeting with Israeli companies scheduled for November 16. In a joint statement issued today, the signatories said the engagement risks enabling Israel's military operations, and they pointed to the contradiction with the Bharat Summit, which the state is hosting this week.

By Shankar Sharma*  As India pursues its renewable energy ambitions, the Central Electricity Authority has identified an enormous pumped storage potential, flagging 320 projects with a combined capacity of approximately 345 gigawatts. Maharashtra alone accounts for nearly 67 gigawatts of this potential, while the Southern Region holds roughly 97 gigawatts, shared principally by Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, and Karnataka. However, these figures represent an identified potential, not an established requirement or a binding commitment to construct every proposed project. 

By A Representative   A new satellite-based study has found that the notorious November smog choking Delhi cannot be blamed on any single source, with most of the pollution originating from outside the city and trapped by stagnant winter weather.

By A Representative   As COP31 places zero waste at the centre of its climate action agenda, the newly announced Global Zero Waste Districts initiative offers an important direction for how cities should address their waste crisis: prevent waste at source, promote reuse and repair, compost organic waste, reduce dependence on plastics, and recognise the contributions of waste pickers. Importantly, WTE incineration is not recognised as an eligible intervention under the initiative and will not receive funding.

By A Representative   The All-India Feminist Alliance (ALIFA) has issued a strong condemnation of the escalating crisis at the Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute (SRFTI) in Kolkata, describing the campus as being under a "siege-like situation" for over 40 days. In a statement released today, the alliance demanded the immediate removal of the Vice-Chancellor, the rollback of academic closure orders, and a fair, independent inquiry into the violence that erupted on campus in late September.

By Sandeep Pandey, Ayush Bajpai, Bemisal Hasani  The Allahabad High Court's bench comprising Justices Siddharth and Vinai K. Dwivedi has ruled that "politicians bear a special duty to their constituents and that failure to secure stay of conviction may lead to loss of an opportunity to contest an election." It also said, "Keeping in view the right to livelihood of a common man which is not less important than the right to contest election by a politician, conviction and sentence of appellant deserves to be stayed…" The convict Nandlal Rai has been sentenced to life term for the murder of Pramod Kumar Nigam, an activist who worked for the rights of street vendors, in Sigra area of Varanasi in 2017. In his petition for bail and stay on his conviction Nandlal Rai had stated that he wished to contest the upcoming Uttar Pradesh Assembly election either as a ruling party candidate or an independent. He was lucky to get relief from the Court. The co-convict...

By A Representative   In a profound tribute, the human rights network, National Alliance of People’s Movements (NAPM), has said a main contribution of pioneering social activist, educationist, and Barefoot College founder Sanjit ‘Bunker’ Roy was to  question the very foundations of ‘mainstream development’ thinking. Roy  passed away on November 10, 2026, at the age of 81 in  Tilonia, Rajasthan.

By Bharat Dogra  With the passing of Bunker Roy, rural India has lost a great presence of original thinking and beautiful creativity. He breathed his last on November 10. He was 81. Over six decades he made immense and durable contributions to rural development, institution building and protection of the environment. He leaves behind his wife Aruna Roy, an equally great development and social activist, and a very large family of members and well-wishers of the Barefoot College and numerous other institutions he helped create or inspired. Both Bunker Roy and the Barefoot College have been highly regarded nationally and internationally for their original thinking and beautiful creativity. He received the Padma Shri, the Jamnalal Bajaj Award, the Tytler Prize of Environment Protection, the Blue Planet Award and other honours.

Counterview News   A sweeping new global report has laid bare how India’s digital landscape has become a toxic breeding ground where male supremacism converges with Hindu nationalist ideologies , fueling severe, algorithmically amplified violence against women—particularly those from minority communities. 

By Dr. Bhimi Daimari   Every morning, as the mist lifts over the emerald hills of Assam, thousands of women bend over tea bushes, their fingers moving in a blur to pluck the "two leaves and a bud." They produce more than half of India’s tea, a beverage savored in drawing rooms across the globe. Yet, in the cramped, damp labor lines where these women return at dusk, a quiet tragedy continues to unfold. 

By Vidya Bhushan Rawat*  Sonia Gandhi's memoir is out, and the publisher is making a fortune. It will soon be a bestseller in India. Loyalists, journalists and opponents are all buying it, and many commentators now have material for a year's worth of podcasts. They will either chant its contents as gospel truth or dismiss them as lies; there is no middle ground in today's discourse. Liberals will assume everything she wrote is correct without examining the other side, while Sangh supporters are determined to exploit its contradictions and a few inaccuracies in dates and years.

By Shankar Sharma*  As we celebrate Deepavali,  the festival of lights,  it is imperative to shed light on a burning issue in our national energy landscape: the phenomenon of peak demand pushing power purchase costs to unsustainable levels.  Indeed, the phenomenon of escalating peak demand and the associated surge in power purchase costs has become a critical national issue, demanding the active involvement of policymakers and stakeholders alike. 

By Bharat Dogra   The people of the global south waited with eager expectation and hope that their climate efforts would get a massive boost when the climate finance promised by rich countries finally materialized. Recently, wealthy nations announced they had crossed the long-promised annual contribution of $100 billion in 2024. But as the ongoing COP31 international climate conference unfolds in Turkey, we must ask a uncomfortable question: Can we truly say that the cause of climate justice has been well served?

By Harsh Thakor*  Johnny Walker introduced a new model of the comedian, one who symbolised the ruthless realities of post-Independence urbanisation, migration, and the commodification of human life. He was one of the most defining actors of the 1950s and 1960s, with a considerable fan following. A simple man of great character, he was known for his clean comedy. On 11 November, we celebrated the centenary of his birth. Born in 1926, he passed away on 29 July 2003. His memories have left an indelible mark through his films and songs.

By Shawan Jabarin   On 13 October 2023, Al-Haq was among the first to warn states to intervene to stop Israel’s genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. The continuum of decades of dehumanisation of Palestinians, a population subjected to refugeehood, denial of return, killings, torture, property appropriations, and pillage – fragmented and subjugated by Israel’s violent settler-colonial apartheid regime – has resulted in an ongoing Nakba, an ongoing colonial erasure, and escalating destruction of the Palestinian people.

By Mohd. Ziyaullah Khan    After decades of being written about, judged, caricatured and criticised by others, Sonia Gandhi has chosen to narrate her own story. The considerable public interest in her memoir, along with the political reactions to its release, raises an important question: why does a woman's attempt to recount her own life become such a major political event?

Counterview News   A new analysis by climate justice advocate Soumya Dutta , published by the Centre for Financial Accountability (CFA), has raised urgent concerns over the growing disparity in India’s climate finance landscape . The report warns that private capital is overwhelmingly flowing toward commercially profitable mitigation projects, while the adaptation needs of the country’s most vulnerable populations remain critically underfunded.

Counterview News   Just 11% of organisations in South Asia describe themselves as fully or very prepared for water-related supply-chain risks , according to a new report from ACCA (the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants). The finding, released in the week before the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP31), exposes a significant preparedness gap as extreme weather intensifies pressure on production, transport, and access to critical resources across the region.

By A Representative   A prominent power and climate policy analyst has urged the Chief Ministers of Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, and Karnataka to comprehensively reassess the rapid proliferation of large pumped storage projects in the ecologically fragile Western and Eastern Ghats. In a detailed representation, addressed to the three Chief Ministers with copies to the Prime Minister and the Union Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change, analyst Shankar Sharma warned that the current trajectory of energy storage development risks irreversible ecological and social damage.

By Sanjay Parate   The brutal murder of a police inspector in Khategaon, Madhya Pradesh , allegedly at the hands of the illicit liquor trade , is not an isolated crime. With reported cross-border links running deep into Gujarat, the incident exposes a comfortable inter-state sanctuary for organized crime. Commit an atrocity in one state, find refuge in another; in both realms, the political patron presides. Immunity is guaranteed, provided the requisite dividend flows upward.

By Harsh Thakor*  A memorial meeting was held on November 7 at the seminar hall of the Mahabodhi Society in Kolkata to mark the anniversary of the October Revolution and to remember Prashant Bose, also known as Kishan Da, a Politburo member of the banned CPI (Maoist). Despite poor attendance, the organisers sought to project the meeting as a grim reminder to the authorities that Maoism continues to live despite unprecedented crackdown in the recent past.

By Bharat Dogra   Following the recent mid-term elections in the USA, some commentators have emphasized the Iran War and others the growing socio-economic problems of people. There is increasing evidence that internal and external factors need to be considered together. 

By Bhabani Shankar Nayak*  There is constant, uninterrupted propaganda aimed at writing off communists and their radical democratic and socialist politics. Its purpose is to smooth the path for right-wing forces as they uphold capitalism and maintain imperialist hegemony over people and resources across the world. Yet the defeats of right-wing poster boys—Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil, Benjamin Netanyahu in Israel, and Donald Trump in the US midterm elections—the defeat of Serbian leader Aleksandar Vučić, and the weakening of Narendra Modi’s popularity send a clear message: right-wing forces can offer neither an alternative nor a genuine defence of people’s interests. Right-wing politics, policies, and propaganda are projects of capitalism.

By Harsh Thakor*  John Berger was a British art critic, novelist, essayist, screenwriter and Marxist cultural thinker whose work reshaped how generations understood the relationship between art, power and society. For more than sixty years, he was one of the most prominent left-wing voices in English-language art criticism, insisting that art is the creation of actual people in given social contexts and not a timeless, universal abstraction. Berger died on January 2, 2017, at the age of 90; as we mark his birth centenary, born in London on November 5, 1926, his legacy remains unusually vital.

  ​By Rajiv Shah  ​Returning from the United States on October 30—less than a week before the outcome of one of the world’s most closely watched elections—it seemed clear to me that the Indian diaspora had little love left for President Donald Trump . What I observed on the ground felt like a total reversal of Prime Minister Narendra Modi ’s 2019 pitch to NRIs in Houston: " Abki baar, Trump sarkar ."

By Vidya Bhushan Rawat*  When things are left to the market to decide, there is no chance of reform in society. Two decades ago, people were discussing patriarchy, caste discrimination and superstition in our society, but today all of this is being justified. Arguments are made that there is a "scientific" basis for our "customs". Young boys and girls do not feel that things around them are wrong. Instead, they are "celebrating" everything in the name of "culture" and "tradition", which must be protected even if it does not conform to the value system of our modern times or to the constitutional value system, which says that every human being is equal.

By Mohd. Ziyaullah Khan   At 8 p.m. on November 8, 2016, Prime Minister Narendra Modi appeared on national television to announce one of the most consequential economic decisions in independent India’s history. With immediate effect, existing ₹500 and ₹1,000 currency notes would cease to be legal tender. 

By A Representative   The All-India Feminist Alliance (ALIFA), a pan-Indian network of progressive feminist organizations and activists, has issued a strong statement condemning a petition filed by Women’s Declaration International (WDI) India in the Supreme Court. The feminist collective is demanding the immediate repeal of the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Amendment Act, 2026, and is pushing back against what it calls a "dangerous and false binary" being created between the rights of cisgender and transgender women.

By Jag Jivan*   Sanjit "Bunker" Roy, the Indian social activist, educator, and founder of the Barefoot College, died at 6:15 am on November 10, 2026. He was 81 years old. He passed away peacefully at his home in Tilonia, Rajasthan, surrounded by his wife, the noted activist and former civil servant Aruna Roy, and members of the local community. 

By Bharat Dogra  Recent times have witnessed a deeply distressing human tragedy. On one hand, the number of people affected by humanitarian crisis situations is being recorded at unprecedentedly high levels. On the other hand, the availability of funds to help them is falling far short of their needs, declining at a fast pace. This combination has led humanitarian aid organizations to warn that millions of lives are threatened. 

By Luiz Felipe Albuquerque   The different generations who lived through the three weeks between the first and second rounds will never forget their significance. It may have been the greatest mass educational process that Brazilian society has ever experienced.

By Stacey Githae, Dr Mansee Bal Bhargava  “Water is life.” Across Africa, this is more than a popular phrase. Water determines whether families can maintain their health, farmers can produce food, children can attend school, businesses can operate, and communities can withstand climate shocks. Yet behind these simple words lies a deeper question: if water is life, does everyone’s life matter? Who decides who gets access to water—and who controls whose life? These questions may seem basic, but they remain unresolved, and more than half the world’s population still lacks access to clean water and sanitation, both basic human rights.

By Prof. Suresh Deman*  The revolution had conquered the state, but had it conquered the contradictions of power? This was the question that haunted Mao Zedong in the final decades of his life. It was also the question that distinguished him from many revolutionary leaders who, having overthrown an established order, came to regard the institutions of their own revolution as the final guardians of historical progress. Mao's distinctive proposition was that the Communist Party, notwithstanding its revolutionary origins, could itself become the site of new class contradictions. The party that had liberated the masses could, unless subjected to their continuing supervision, become separated from them.

By A Representative   The civil rights group, National Alliance for Justice, Accountability and Rights (NAJAR), has issued a strong statement extending solidarity to the Adivasi and Gorkha families of the Torsa Tea Garden in Alipurduar district, West Bengal, who have been resisting displacement by the proposed Jaigaon Land Port project for over 100 days. In its statement dated 9th November 2026, NAJAR, a collective of lawyers, law students, and legal professionals under the National Alliance of People's Movements (NAPM), condemned the demolition of the peaceful protest site by Bengal police on 2nd November and the arbitrary arrest of 11 residents, despite ongoing court proceedings and assurances against eviction.

By Vidya Bhushan Rawat*  Diwali is over, but our cities have been left toxic and unbreathable. How exactly is bursting firecrackers a form of celebration? There is nothing wrong with lighting diyas, exchanging gifts, celebrating in the spirit of togetherness, or sharing meals with those who cannot afford them. Cooking delicious food at home and enjoying the festivities is beautiful. But what we are witnessing today is not celebration; it is the destruction of our lonely planet. This toxic smog makes life miserable for those who are noise-sensitive and those suffering from respiratory issues.

By Mansee Bal Bhargava, Priya Sharma*  The images from Har ki Pauri in Haridwar were damning. To clean the Ganga before Diwali, authorities stopped the river’s flow for 18 days. What surfaced was not a sacred river but a landfill: tons of waste, discarded clothes, puja material, plastic, flowers and debris exposed on the riverbed. Equally ironic, some people still took a holy dip in the remaining trickles—and left behind more clothes and puja material. This should not surprise a civilisation that thrives on cultural  practices that instigate pollution. The question, then, is not merely why the Ganga is dying. It is why a morally dying civilisation continues to be fuelled by a culture of polluting.

Counterview News   Cyberattackers grew faster and harder to detect in 2025, increasingly slipping through trusted systems rather than breaking in with obvious malware, claims U.S.-based  cybersecurity technology company CrowdStrike's 2026 Global Threat Report . The report says adversaries "grew more evasive than ever before," exploiting trust in supply chain partners, legitimate software, internal systems and employees. CrowdStrike now tracks 281 adversaries after naming 24 new ones in 2025, plus 150 activity clusters and emerging threat groups.

By Mohd Ziyaullah Khan  The artificial intelligence revolution was promised as the ultimate economic engine of the 21st century, poised to redefine productivity, create unprecedented wealth, and transform global workforces. Wall Street bought into that vision without hesitation, pouring hundreds of billions of dollars into semiconductor manufacturers, cloud providers, and data-center infrastructure. However, on November 5, 2026, that unbridled optimism collided with harsh financial reality. The Nasdaq Composite plunged 5.5% in its sharpest single-day drop in 19 months. Semiconductor leader Nvidia plummeted 9.3%, AMD sank nearly 17%, and the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index dropped over 12%. In total, approximately $3 trillion in market value vanished from S&P 500 companies as the tech-heavy Nasdaq fell nearly 12% from its October peak into correction territory.

By Thania Saucedo  Paraguay is undergoing one of the most significant political and financial crises in its recent history. The Central Bank of Paraguay’s intervention in Ueno Bank—following the detection of serious irregularities in its operations and solvency issues—triggered a crisis that quickly expanded beyond the banking sector. Today, it has direct consequences for the government of Santiago Peña and has triggered an impeachment process that calls into question the very future of the president himself.

By Bhabani Shankar Nayak*  Artificial intelligence is reshaping how people live, work, and make decisions. It offers genuine opportunities to improve productivity, expand access to services, and support scientific and social progress. But those benefits are not automatic. The central question is whether AI will be developed and deployed primarily to maximize commercial returns, or whether it will be governed to serve public welfare under meaningful human oversight.

By Harsh Thakor*  Timothy Manion’s "Why Barbarossa Failed" is a groundbreaking book examining historical truths about the largest military campaign in history, one that has remained vaguely understood for more than eight decades. The excuses offered by Adolf Hitler and his generals for the German army’s debacle continue to come to the fore even in the most recent accounts of Operation Barbarossa. Manion, a Harvard Law School graduate and Wall Street lawyer, shatters the historical myth in this new work. The book was published in early 2026.

By M.A. Baby   That oft-quoted line from the German poet and playwright Heinrich Heine’s play "Almansor" is engraved on the Bibliothek memorial at Bebelplatz in central Berlin. It commemorates the Nazi book burning of May 10, 1933, when members of the German Student Union, backed by university professors, burnt and destroyed more than 25,000 books they deemed “un-German”. Marxist and communist literature was among the prime targets of that state-supported campaign of censorship and cultural destruction. Heine’s own works went into the flames, along with copies of more than 4,000 other titles, including those of Karl Marx.

By Vivek Sakpal*  "Pappu," as he was called for nearly a decade, has now been replaced by "ji" in the ruling camp's speeches. It is a massive shift in how they address the Hon. Leader of the Opposition, Mr Rahul Rajiv Gandhi. Many of my "bhakt" friends used to argue about how unfit he is to sit in the Prime Minister's chair. I always countered that even if Congress won a majority, I wondered whether he would take the oath of that office at all.

Counterview News   A groundbreaking new ethnographic study published by Cambridge University Press is challenging optimistic narratives about rural democratic empowerment in India. In "Democracy against Equality: Caste, Institutions and Power in Postcolonial Punjab", Nicolas Martin, Associate Professor of Modern Indology/South Asian Studies at the University of Zurich, argues that formal democratic mechanisms are frequently co-opted by rural elites to perpetuate, rather than dismantle, deep-seated systemic inequality.