Counterview

Counterview News   A detailed photo blog published by the South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers and People (SANDRP) on August 11, 2026, argues that the repeated flooding of Pune neighbourhoods during the ongoing monsoon—including severe inundation in Ekta Nagari on Sinhgad Road—is the direct result of “corrupt, non-transparent, unaccountable governance” in the demarcation and enforcement of flood lines along the city’s rivers. 

By Kedar Anil Gadgil   A few minutes before midnight on 14 August 1947, as the calendar turned to the 15th, Jawaharlal Nehru rose to speak in the Constituent Assembly in New Delhi. He was addressing a state that did not yet exist, on behalf of a civilisation several thousand years older than the one being born at the stroke of the midnight hour. The speech ran to barely 1,100 words and took him about eight minutes to deliver. 

By Harsh Thakor*  ‘Naxalbari from Battleground (1967–1978): An Anthology of Samar Sen’s Frontier’ is a landmark collection of articles chronicling and dissecting the Naxalbari movement. Edited by Sushovan Mukhopadhyaya, it is a collection of articles that stands as a precious historical document of a period that witnessed one of the most defining liberation movements in India. Published by Arun Kumar Dey through Radical Impression Publishing House in Kolkata, the book is a vivid illustration of why and how Naxalbari ushered in a new horizon and altered the course of Indian history.

By Vikas Meshram*   Every morning in Phalwa village of Rajasthan's Banswara district begins much like it has for generations. Farmers walk to their fields before sunrise, cattle are led out to graze, and the day's work starts with the hope that the land will once again provide. For most tribal families, farming is not merely an occupation but a way of life inherited across generations. Yet amidst these traditions, some farmers are quietly rewriting the future of agriculture by embracing new ideas without abandoning their roots. One such farmer is Mangalsingh Ganaga, whose journey into organic turmeric cultivation has transformed not only his family's income but also inspired many others in his village.

By Chintan Dave  Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Independence Day address should be read less as a catalogue of announcements than as an invitation to examine India’s next development challenge. That challenge is capability.

By A Representative   The news of thousands of quintals of wheat rotting in government warehouses in Mandla district due to insect infestation and negligence is deeply alarming. According to reports, approximately 17,859 quintals of wheat — roughly 1,786 metric tonnes — purchased during the Rabi Marketing Year 2025-26 through the Civil Supplies Corporation and stored in a government warehouse, has been severely damaged. Large quantities have been infested by insects, with many sacks rendered unfit for consumption.

By Mohd. Ziyaullah Khan   By 2026, India’s youth anger can no longer be dismissed as a reaction to one leaked examination, one cancelled recruitment process or one police crackdown. The protests now unfolding across the country expose a deeper national failure: India is producing aspirations far faster than it is producing opportunity.

By A Representative   Hundreds of representatives of fishermen displaced by the Sardar Sarovar Project met Fisheries Department officials in Barwani on August 12, held detailed discussions on their problems and rights, and submitted a memorandum of demands. The delegation, led by the proposed Narmada Mata Matsya Utpadan Evam Vipanan Sangh, comprised representatives of various fishermen cooperative societies from Barwani, Dhar and Alirajpur districts.

By Aseem Mishra*    India’s cities are locked in a quiet but intensifying struggle over one of their most contested public spaces: the footpath. For pedestrians, a footpath is basic infrastructure—a strip of ground that should allow people to move safely, independently and with dignity. For millions of informal workers, the same stretch of pavement is a workplace, a source of daily income and often the difference between survival and destitution.

Counterview News     India’s housing market is increasingly showing two very different faces: affluent buyers are driving demand for premium homes, even as the supply of genuinely affordable housing continues to shrink.

By Neha Desai*  On the morning of August 10, 2026, the quiet border village of Mingmang Basti in Assam’s Dhemaji district erupted in gunfire. Unidentified persons from the Arunachal Pradesh side allegedly opened fire on Assamese villagers during a confrontation over contested land. Between eight and eighteen people were injured, several critically. The episode was swiftly labelled a “localised conflict” by Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma. That description is both accurate and damning. It was localised only because successive governments—state and central—have spent decades ensuring that a solvable administrative problem remained permanently unresolved, volatile, and armed.

Counterview News    India’s rapid economic expansion is accompanied by an increasingly concentrated distribution of wealth, raising fresh questions over how fheadline GDP figures reflect the economic reality of ordinary Indians. A two yearold social-media post by former bureaucrat Anil Swarup , founder chairman of Nexus of Good , has resurrected a debate over the gap between India’s aggregate economic size and the wealth held by its richest citizens. Swarup argues that looking only at GDP per capita can obscure the extent to which wealth is concentrated among a small section of the population.

By A Representative   A group of leading health professionals, medical scientists, and public health experts has written to Union Health Minister J.P. Nadda, demanding immediate implementation of a watershed ban on junk food advertising and the introduction of mandatory front-of-pack warning labels, warning that India can no longer afford delays in addressing its escalating diet-related non-communicable disease (NCD) crisis. 

By Kumar Krishnan*  The student movement sweeping Jharkhand over alleged irregularities in competitive examinations has evolved far beyond a demand to cancel tests. It has become a deeper confrontation over trust between the state’s youth and the government.

By Harsh Thakor*  In August 2026, the swimming world will celebrate the centennial anniversary of Gertrude Ederle's historic English Channel crossing. One hundred years ago, on August 6, 1926, Ederle became the first woman—and only the sixth person overall—to successfully swim the English Channel. Her time of 14 hours and 39 minutes shattered the previous record by nearly two hours.

By Ravi Ranjan*  Shamsher Bahadur Singh (1911-1993) stands as a distinctive vanguard poet of the Nai Kavita (New Poetry) movement in modern Hindi literature. His work seamlessly bridges the worlds of Impressionist painting and music with verse, celebrated for intricate imagery, experimental nature, and profound sensitivity. 

By Mayanka Singh Chhonker*  Agra is known as the home of the Taj Mahal, one of the seven wonders of the world and a bucket-list destination. Visitors marvel at its beauty, but few realise that another Agra exists in its shadow: the Agra of its artisans. These communities hold the essence of the city’s cultural legacy yet remain invisible to many of the people who seek beauty here.

By Harsh Thakor   Swimming across the Baltic is one of the most enduring, and almost miraculous, unimaginable or insurmountable missions in long-distance swimming. The swimmer faces the perils of not only a considerable distance but also fluctuating weather, cold water, waves and mounting physical fatigue. A Polish man has become the first person ever to swim across the Baltic Sea between Sweden and Poland. On Sunday, Bartłomiej Kubkowski swam 100 miles (160km) from Kaseberga, in southern Sweden, to Dziwnów, on Poland's northern Baltic coast, taking 56 hours.

By A Representative   A sharply worded commentary published on the website of the advocacy group, Centre for Financial Accountability (CFA), has raised an alarm over a new wellness event linked to controversial businessman C. Sivasankaran , urging India's Finance Minister to intervene before more people are defrauded. The piece was written by Thomas Franco , former General Secretary of the All India Bank Officers' Confederation and a Steering Committee Member at the Global Labour University.

By A Representative   The proposed nuclear power plant project at Chausara village in Chhindwara district and related land-use issues have drawn widespread local attention and sparked political debate. Nearly 750 acres of land were acquired several years ago for a thermal power project planned by the Adani Group (Pench Thermal Energy). Subsequent discussions about using the same site for a possible nuclear power plant have revived long-pending land acquisition grievances, local protests and statements by regional political leaders.