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Weeks before the assembly elections in Delhi, the Union Home Ministry has reportedly granted the Enforcement Directorate (ED) permission to prosecute former Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal over alleged irregularities in his administration’s excise policy. Is the timing of this move merely coincidental? Kejriwal, who is currently on bail, was previously arrested in the lead-up to the 2024 general election.
The health of Jagjit Singh Dallewal, a 70-year-old farmer from Punjab, is deteriorating as he enters the 50th day of his indefinite hunger strike on Jan. 14. He has refused medical intervention while continuing his fast to demand a legal guarantee of minimum support price for crops.
Three Indian cities—Bengaluru, Mumbai and Delhi—rank among the slowest globally in terms of average travel speeds, according to the TomTom Traffic Index 2025. The report, drawing from over 450 billion miles driven worldwide in 2024, shows a pressing challenge for the country’s urban hubs: the deteriorating quality of urban mobility.
The 2025 Maha Kumbh is set to begin on Jan. 13 in the city of Prayagraj in Uttar Pradesh, representing one of the largest religious gatherings on the planet. According to media reports, over 400 million people are expected to participate in the gather. Is this assembly purely religious, or has it evolved also into a platform for political influence?
News reports on the spread of Human Metapneumovirus (HMPV) are bringing back memories of the initial alerts regarding COVID-19 a few years ago. While HMPV is not typically fatal, its capacity to infect individuals across all demographics has raised significant public concern. However, it must not become part of a recurring pattern in global health responses: illnesses that also affect the privileged often dominate headlines and governmental priorities, overshadowing diseases that primarily affect marginalised groups and less developed countries.
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The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) is reportedly hosting around 8,000 students, who are underage, from Dalit and disadvantaged communities at the ongoing Maha Kumbh in Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh. The aim is to familiarise them with Hindu traditions and Indian culture, preventing them from becoming vulnerable to religious conversions. However, this move undermines the autonomy and sovereignty of the Dalit community and contravenes the Indian Constitution.
More than 20 months after ethnic violence erupted in Manipur on May 3, 2023, over 31,900 displaced Kuki-Zo individuals remain in relief camps in two districts of the state. Newsreel Asia has learned that in one of the districts alone, at least 90 deaths from humanitarian causes have occurred, with cancer and kidney failure death rates far surpassing national or regional averages amid a lack of government intervention.
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In the Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir, households commonly face frequent power outages and struggle with unaffordable electricity tariffs. This, despite the region's immense potential for hydroelectric power generation. Asad Ullah Mir describes the developmental injustices his community endures due to the extraction of hydroelectric power. Meanwhile, Abdul Hamid, a 50-year-old resident of Dal Gate in Srinagar, discusses the tough choices low-income families must make between electricity and basic necessities. This raises a pressing question: Why must the people of this region endure cold, dark winters?
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An elderly woman, Shanti Devi, who lost two of her sons in a shootout by security personnel, resides alone in a Maoist-affected region of Chhattisgarh. This episode of The Dinner Table explores her story.
Madhusudan Mahto, a 60-year-old resident of Dhanbad district in Jharkhand state, is one of many paying the price for successive state governments' careless embrace of state capitalism. Coal mining has been ongoing in Jharkhand since 1901. Today, around 6,486 hectares of land in the state affected by the mining activity, while about 75% of the state’s population remains economically dependent on agriculture. Although mining is a lucrative source of revenue for the state and is prioritised over vital sectors like agriculture, it compromises the well-being of millions of residents who are not employed in the mining sector. And this is apart from significant environmental and health costs associated with the extraction of natural resources.
Khairunissa, along with her siblings and parents, spent years living in a multi-religious and multicultural apartment in Ahmedabad, Gujarat. When communal tensions and targeted violence against Muslims erupted in the city on February 28, 2002, her family initially felt secure, confident that their neighbours would be able to protect them. But then Khairunissa saw a mob approaching their building. In an instant, their lives and circumstances changed dramatically. More than 22 years later, the lasting impact continues to affect them and hundreds of thousands of Muslims in the state.
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An elderly woman, Shanti Devi, who lost two of her sons in a shootout by security personnel, resides alone in a Maoist-affected region of Chhattisgarh. This episode of The Dinner Table explores her story.
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Poornima was liberated from bonded labour in 2014, but she immediately faced the formidable challenge of rebuilding her life. She needed to secure employment, find accommodation and obtain essential documents. With determination, she returned to her village to acquire the skills necessary for self-sufficiency. Demonstrating both courage and perseverance, Poornima and her husband set up a small tailoring business. This initiative not only sustained their family but also provided employment opportunities for other freed bonded laborers in their community. By converting her adversities into a platform for financial independence and empowerment, Poornima has exemplified how resilience can drive transformative change, offering a future filled with dignity and hope for herself and others.
The video delves into the lives of Delhi's slum dwellers, whose homes perpetually face the threat of demolition. In a recent case, on May 19, 2023, residents of Priyanka Gandhi Camp in Vasant Vihar, Delhi, received official notices from the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) to vacate the land by June 15, 2023. Despite legal battles fought by the PG camp residents, their ‘Jhuggis’ (slums) were ultimately demolished. Between April 1 and July 27, 2023, Delhi witnessed 49 demolition drives. In 2023, at least 1600 homes have been destroyed and about 2,50,000 are homeless in India’s Capital. This story is about the plight of those who become homeless overnight.
Gujarat stands as India’s foremost salt-producing state, contributing 85% to the nation's total salt output. Within Gujarat, 31% of this production originates from the Agariya community living within the Little Rann of Kutch. Despite being the primary contributors to the salt industry, the Agariya people find themselves receiving the smallest share of profits. Furthermore, they grapple with the adverse effects of climate change, directly impacting their livelihoods. In this narrative, Bhopa and Gunand, two Agariya salt farmers, shed light on the disparity in earnings within the salt farming sector.
Bhupat Bhai Sekhaliya, a diligent and hardworking rickshaw driver from Gujarat, belongs to the Dalit community. Despite his unwavering dedication, the respect he deserves eludes him, particularly from individuals of "upper" castes in his vicinity. Many daily activities, deemed "normal" for any resident, remain inaccessible to him. Defiance can lead to physical assault. However, Bhupat's story is not an isolated incident. In Gujarat, the spectre of violence against Dalits looms large, with an average of four cases reported daily. The past seven years have seen a staggering total of over 9,000 documented instances of such violence.
If you are living in Delhi, you might lose 12 years of your life because of air pollution. Jyoti Lavakare Pande, an author and a journalist from Delhi, writes an open letter to highlight the intensity of pollution in Delhi. She reflects on her mother's vibrant and resilient life, filled with smiles and melodies. Her mother, Kamale Pande, a classical vocalist, was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer, struggling for every breath in Delhi's pollution. She pens down her mother’s journey to raise awareness about the invisible killer looming in Delhi’s air.
This video is from the third episode of our online event series, “Newsreel Asia Conversations,” which gives you a chance to interact with filmmakers who explore social, economic and political themes in their works. It all came together from our team's interactions with these creative minds at the 2024 Dharamshala International Film Festival. In this episode, we featured screenwriter, lyricist and filmmaker Shashwat Dwivedi, and our conversation centred on “Revisiting Childhood,” based on his latest film “Bobby Beauty Parlour.”
This video is from the second episode of our online event series, “Newsreel Asia Conversations,” which gives you a chance to interact with filmmakers who explore social, economic and political themes in their works. In this episode, we featured filmmaker and director Tarun Jain, and our conversation centred on “Why Education Comes with a High Cost for Girls,” based on his film “Ballad of the Mountain.”
The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) is reportedly hosting around 8,000 students, who are underage, from Dalit and disadvantaged communities at the ongoing Maha Kumbh in Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh. The aim is to familiarise them with Hindu traditions and Indian culture, preventing them from becoming vulnerable to religious conversions. However, this move undermines the autonomy and sovereignty of the Dalit community and contravenes the Indian Constitution.