Submission Policy

A voluntary initiative not attached with any organization, Counterview accepts news stories/ blogs/ articles on latest happenings, including policy changes, taking place around you. While original content will be preferred, we may accept a writeup published elsewhere, as long as you have the right to republish it.

While we are not attached with any particular ideology, you must bear in mind that we are geared towards a readership that includes members of academia and civil society, policy makers and experts, media persons and professionals, concerned individuals and activists.
Your content can be scathingly critical, but should avoid overt propaganda, for or against a particular political outfit or individual or organization, should not be derogatory, should not incite hate, and should avoid content that may be directly promotional.
While sending matter for publication, you must keep in mind that we are not a campaign site favouring this or that viewpoint or ideology. Even while publishing a campaign matter, we would ensure to make it appear, through headline and editing, that what has been published is not the viewpoint of Counterview.
Your content should be informative, backed up with facts, figures and with quotes. Plagiarized content will be rejected.
Counterview reserves the right to edit, rewrite if necessary, your content, give objective heading, and remove objectionable portions that would seek to suggest that we are favouring a particular viewpoint or ideology.
Your content should provide hyperlinks instead of annotations for secondary sources that are sought to be quoted as references. If hyperlink is not accessible, the source of information (it could be a book, a treatise, a research paper, an unpublished or published report, or an article in a journal without online presence) could be quoted as part of the text within bracket.
While it is desirable that your news story, article or blog should include byline, specifically stating the contact information and current job/ activity, if you want to remain anonymous, your content can be placed either under Counterview Desk, or By A Representative, or pseudonym.
We recommend that your write-up does not exceed 1,000 words, as our experience suggests articles beyond this length experience difficulty in maintaining reader interest.
You may send suggestive images, preferably original, or from creative commons sites, as separate attachments, with very short captions.
By sending your content, you agree to our Creative Commons license, allowing others to republish it freely for non-commercial use, unless you specify that your contents should not be used elsewhere without your prior permission.
As we are a purely voluntary site with no financial support, seeking information from alternative sources, we do not pay for publishing your news story/ article/ blog.

Our email id for sending news story/ article/ blog: counterview.net@gmail.com
Twitter: twitter.com/CounterviewNet
Facebook: www.facebook.com/CounterviewIndia

Gram sabha as reformer: Mandla’s quiet challenge to the liquor economy

By Raj Kumar Sinha* This year, the Union Ministry of Panchayati Raj is organising a two-day PESA Mahotsav in Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh, on 23–24 December 2025. The event marks the passage of the Panchayats (Extension to Scheduled Areas) Act, 1996 (PESA), enacted by Parliament on 24 December 1996 to establish self-governance in Fifth Schedule areas. Scheduled Areas are those notified by the President of India under Article 244(1) read with the Fifth Schedule of the Constitution, which provides for a distinct framework of governance recognising the autonomy of tribal regions. At present, Fifth Schedule areas exist in ten states: Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Rajasthan and Telangana. The PESA Act, 1996 empowers Gram Sabhas—the village assemblies—as the foundation of self-rule in these areas. Among the many powers devolved to them is the authority to take decisions on local matters, including the regulation...

MG-NREGA: A global model still waiting to be fully implemented

By Bharat Dogra When the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MG-NREGA) was introduced in India nearly two decades ago, it drew worldwide attention. The reason was evident. At a time when states across much of the world were retreating from responsibility for livelihoods and welfare, the world’s second most populous country—with nearly two-thirds of its people living in rural or semi-rural areas—committed itself to guaranteeing 100 days of employment a year to its rural population.

Policy changes in rural employment scheme and the politics of nomenclature

By N.S. Venkataraman* The Government of India has introduced a revised rural employment programme by fine-tuning the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), which has been in operation for nearly two decades. The MGNREGA scheme guarantees 100 days of employment annually to rural households and has primarily benefited populations in rural areas. The revised programme has been named VB-G RAM–G (Viksit Bharat Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission – Gramin). The government has stated that the revised scheme incorporates several structural changes, including an increase in guaranteed employment from 100 to 125 days, modifications in the financing pattern, provisions to strengthen unemployment allowances, and penalties for delays in wage payments. Given the extent of these changes, the government has argued that a new name is required to distinguish the revised programme from the existing MGNREGA framework. As has been witnessed in recent years, the introdu...

Rollback of right to work? VB–GRAM G Bill 'dilutes' statutory employment guarantee

By A Representative The Right to Food Campaign has strongly condemned the passage of the Viksit Bharat – Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) (VB–GRAM G) Bill, 2025, describing it as a major rollback of workers’ rights and a fundamental dilution of the statutory Right to Work guaranteed under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA). In a statement, the Campaign termed the repeal of MGNREGA a “dark day for workers’ rights” and accused the government of converting a legally enforceable, demand-based employment guarantee into a centralised, discretionary welfare scheme.

A comrade in culture and controversy: Yao Wenyuan’s revolutionary legacy

By Harsh Thakor* This year marks two important anniversaries in Chinese revolutionary history—the 20th death anniversary of Yao Wenyuan, and the 50th anniversary of his seminal essay "On the Social Basis of the Lin Biao Anti-Party Clique". These milestones invite reflection on the man whose pen ignited the first sparks of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution and whose sharp ideological interventions left an indelible imprint on the political and cultural landscape of socialist China.

Swami Vivekananda's views on caste and sexuality were 'painfully' regressive

By Bhaskar Sur* Swami Vivekananda now belongs more to the modern Hindu mythology than reality. It makes a daunting job to discover the real human being who knew unemployment, humiliation of losing a teaching job for 'incompetence', longed in vain for the bliss of a happy conjugal life only to suffer the consequent frustration.

Making rigid distinctions between Indian and foreign 'historically untenable'

By A Representative Oral historian, filmmaker and cultural conservationist Sohail Hashmi has said that everyday practices related to attire, food and architecture in India reflect long histories of interaction and adaptation rather than rigid or exclusionary ideas of identity. He was speaking at a webinar organised by the Indian History Forum (IHF).

India’s Halal economy 'faces an uncertain future' under the new food Bill

By Syed Ali Mujtaba* The proposed Food Safety and Standards (Amendment) Bill, 2025 marks a decisive shift in India’s food regulation landscape by seeking to place Halal certification exclusively under government control while criminalising all private Halal certification bodies. Although the Bill claims to promote “transparency” and “standardisation,” its structure and implications raise serious concerns about religious freedom, economic marginalisation, and the systematic dismantling of a long-established, Muslim-led Halal ecosystem in India.

From jobless to ‘job-loss’ growth: Experts critique gig economy and fintech risks

By A Representative Leading economists and social activists gathered in the capital on Friday to launch the third edition of the State of Finance in India Report 2024-25 , issuing a stark warning that the rapid digitalization of the Indian economy is eroding welfare systems and entrenching "digital dystopia."

Search This Blog