Counterview

By Bharat Dogra  The WHO estimates COVID-19 mortality at around 7 million, but excess mortality estimates that include deaths caused by indirect impacts of the pandemic take the figure to around 15 million. The Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) puts it even higher, at between 18 and 21 million. Clearly, the lessons from such a huge tragedy must be well learnt to avoid repetition of mistakes. This article confines itself to just one highly debated issue—the COVID-19 origin debate—from which much remains to be learnt for the safety of future years.

By A Representative   A nationwide mental health awareness campaign aimed at reducing stigma and encouraging open conversations about psychological well-being concluded in New Delhi on 15 October, after reaching young people across 14 states. The 56-day initiative, Beyond the Horizon: A Ride for Resilience, led by Seher Hashmi, covered more than 7,500 kilometres between Delhi and Kanyakumari and back, conducting 111 awareness sessions across 62 cities, towns and villages.

By Dev Narsinghani*  A recent Counterview article  rightly pointed out that the Indian market is flooded with packaged snacks, instant noodles, and sugary drinks, and it welcomed the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India’s (FSSAI) push for red front-of-pack warning labels on such items. 

Counterview News   A groundbreaking new meta-analysis published in the journal Family Medicine and Community Health has provided some of the most comprehensive evidence to date linking the consumption of ultra-processed foods (UPFs) to a wide array of chronic diseases and premature death. The study , led by Dr. Xiao Liu and colleagues from institutions including Sun Yat-sen University and Duke-NUS Medical School, analyzed data from 51 prospective cohort studies involving nearly 8.82 million adults across 51 different cohorts.

Counterview News   A randomized controlled trial published in the journal Nature Metabolism has found that ultra-processed foods (UPFs) trigger metabolic and neural responses distinct from minimally processed foods—even when the two meals are nutritionally identical. The study provides direct experimental evidence that food processing itself influences health through mechanisms beyond calories and macronutrients alone.

By Bhabani Shankar Nayak*  The Lancet Commission's report on "21st Century Global Threats to Health" identifies seventeen interconnected crises threatening life on Earth: air pollution, antimicrobial resistance, childhood malnutrition, the collapse of development and health assistance, conventional conflicts, high alcohol use, high blood pressure, income inequality, low educational attainment, the malicious use of AI, nuclear conflict, obesity, pandemics, poor mental health, smoking, and unhealthy aging.

By A Representative   A severe toxic emergency has erupted in the Ambad area of Nashik, Maharashtra, as laboratory tests confirm that residential groundwater is contaminated with hexavalent chromium at levels more than 1,000 times the permissible safety limit. According to a recent press note by the South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers and People (SANDRP), the acute contamination is likely stemming from industrial discharge in the Ambad Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC) area, turning local borewell water a bright yellow. 

By A Representative   The Right to Food Campaign on Wednesday welcomed the Maharashtra government's decision to strengthen PM POSHAN and extend school meals from Class 8 to Class 10, while urging that the scheme be expanded to cover Classes 9–12, with a nutritious breakfast also introduced alongside milk, eggs and fruit.

By Dr A.V. Yadappanavar *  In a small village called Takli, not far from the temple town of Pandharpur in Maharashtra, there is a home where children who were once abandoned because of their HIV status now find food, medicine, education, and something even rarer — love without fear. The home is called Palawi, and it was founded in 2001 by Mangal Shah, affectionately known as Mangaltai, a social worker who could not look away from children rejected by their own families.

By Bharat Dogra*  The recent successful BRICS summit, along with the preceding talks that resolved several contentious issues, has helped create conducive conditions for improving India-China relations. This is good news for both countries and for world peace.

By A Representative   A total of 125 workers have died across India between January and October 2, 2026, in incidents involving hazardous manual-entry sanitation work, including sewer and septic-tank cleaning, sewage-treatment plants, and other confined spaces, the advocacy group Dalit Adivasi Shakti Adhikar Manch (DASAM) said in a press release issued.

By Aseem Mishra*  For years, Kutch presented a striking contradiction. It emerged as one of Gujarat's most industrialised districts, with ports, mining, salt production, chemicals, engineering, steel, ceramics, textiles and large infrastructure projects, yet the district remained outside the full territorial coverage of the Employees' State Insurance (ESI) scheme. That contradiction has now formally changed. A notification issued by the Ministry of Labour and Employment on 25 September 2026 appointed 1 October 2026 as the date from which contributions under Section 29 of the Code on Social Security, 2020 would become payable in the entire area of Kutch and other previously non-implemented districts of Gujarat, with benefits under Chapter IV relating to the Employees' State Insurance Corporation to be provided to covered employees. The journey to this point, however, took several years of representations, official correspondence, a Public Interest Litigation and ...

By Rajiv Shah   A comprehensive new report published in September 2026 reveals that climate change has remained a marginal concern in the Indian Parliament despite the country's growing vulnerability to extreme weather events. The study, titled India's Parliamentary Discourse on Environment since the Paris Agreement , analyzed legislative engagement over the first ten years following the 2015 Paris Agreement .

By A Representative   Thousands of people in the small Indian town of Kymore in Madhya Pradesh have developed cancer and serious lung diseases after a British company dumped more than a million tonnes of toxic asbestos waste there, an  investigation by  ITV News, a British free-to-air public broadcast television network, has claimed. The estimated clean-up cost stands at around £100 million, yet there are currently no plans to remove the waste because the company responsible, Turner and Newall, went bankrupt in 2001.

Counterview Desk      A new longitudinal study by three UK-based psychology and biosocial research scholars has revealed that frequent, non-sexual physical touch from a romantic partner significantly improves long-term metabolic and cardiovascular health in older adults. While the science appears clear, experts warn that for elderly Indian couples, reaping these profound biological benefits requires navigating deep-seated cultural and religious taboos surrounding physical affection and "touch therapy" in later life. 

By Dr. P.K. Gupta*  Traditional medicine is simultaneously a repository of cultural knowledge, a source of accessible care, a commercial industry and, at times, a shelter for untested claims and unqualified practice. Any serious scientific examination must therefore avoid two extremes: the romantic belief that everything inherited from tradition is inherently beneficial, and the dismissive assumption that nothing traditional possesses therapeutic value. Cultural heritage deserves respect. Human illness demands evidence.

By Jyotiradiya Singh*  Every year, the National Crime Records Bureau publishes a report that most people never read. It is called Accidental Deaths and Suicides in India, and buried inside its tables and percentages is one of the clearest pictures we have of what young India is going through right now. The numbers are not abstract. Each one is a person, a family, a room that went quiet. 

By A Representative  The Nutrition Advocacy in Public Interest (NAPI) has raised serious concerns over the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India’s (FSSAI) latest move to open a fresh public consultation on front-of-pack labelling (FOPL) regulations , warning that the process could further delay a policy that has already been in the works since September 2022.

By A V Yadappanavar*  For decades, the dominant policy mandate across South India was aggressive population control, a relentless push to curb soaring birth rates. Today, that narrative has undergone a profound and ironic reversal. Having been remarkably successful in stabilizing its demographic growth, the region now finds itself pivoting toward population conservation and care. The very success of its past policies has birthed a new, complex challenge: managing a rapidly aging society and a shrinking youth base.

By A Representative   Vancouver, Washington-based Columbia nd Gem House has announced a unique international initiative to raise funds for the Vadodara-based advocacy group People's Training and Research Centre (PTRC), which been supporting victims of the fatal occupational disease silicosis in Gujarat for decades.