Floods in Northeast India Are Less a Natural Disaster, More a Policy Failure
NB, News Briefings, June 2025 Vishal Arora NB, News Briefings, June 2025 Vishal Arora

Floods in Northeast India Are Less a Natural Disaster, More a Policy Failure

Flooding in northeast India has long been treated as an unavoidable natural disaster – a view convenient for those in power, as it conceals the fact that the annual devastation is not inevitable. On June 3, the death toll from rain-related disasters across the eight northeastern States rose to 47 – a loss that could have been prevented.

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Bihar Dalit Girl’s Death: Why We Mourn Some Victims and Ignore Others
NB, News Briefings, June 2025 Vishal Arora NB, News Briefings, June 2025 Vishal Arora

Bihar Dalit Girl’s Death: Why We Mourn Some Victims and Ignore Others

Why don’t we often feel moved, angry or responsible when we read about tragedies in the news? The recent death of a 10-year-old Dalit girl from Bihar, raped and left in critical condition in an ambulance, may have saddened us for a moment, but not enough to make us act—not even to express outrage online. But this wasn’t the case after the 2012 Nirbhaya Delhi gang rape. Let’s turn to psychology to understand what makes us pick and choose whose suffering we mourn.

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Foreign Media First to Report IAF Losses; Govt Keeps Parliament Waiting
NB, News Briefings, June 2025 Vishal Arora NB, News Briefings, June 2025 Vishal Arora

Foreign Media First to Report IAF Losses; Govt Keeps Parliament Waiting

The Indian public, and even members of Parliament, first learned about the Indian Air Force’s losses during the early phase of Operation Sindoor through foreign media reports quoting Chief of Defence Staff General Anil Chauhan on May 31. This confirms that the information about the initial setbacks is not classified on grounds of national security. Why, then, has the central government not provided a clear explanation of what transpired during those four days of armed conflict?

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Should Religion Be Above Criticism?

Should Religion Be Above Criticism?

A 22-year-old law student in Pune has been charged with allegedly offending religious sentiments after making derogatory remarks about Islam and the Prophet Muhammad. Whatever the merits of the case, the incident raises an important question: should the right to free speech include the right to criticise religion—one’s own or someone else’s?

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Do Assam’s People Need Guns—Or Just Better Governance?
NB, News Briefings, May 2025 Vishal Arora NB, News Briefings, May 2025 Vishal Arora

Do Assam’s People Need Guns—Or Just Better Governance?

The Assam government’s decision to issue arms licences to “indigenous” residents in remote areas, under the pretext of protection from “illegal immigrants,” marks a retreat from the state’s core responsibility to ensure public security. It also legitimises exclusion and replaces public trust and institutional justice with a politics rooted in fear.

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China’s War on Tibetan Identity Begins with Children, Report Finds
NB, News Briefings, May 2025 Vishal Arora NB, News Briefings, May 2025 Vishal Arora

China’s War on Tibetan Identity Begins with Children, Report Finds

China is operating a vast network of “colonial” boarding schools across Tibet that forcibly removes children—including those as young as four—from their families, a new report released Wednesday claims. The report, published by the U.S.-based Tibet Action Institute, says the system is designed not for education access but for political assimilation, cutting children off from their language, culture and religion.

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Can Manipur Govt Be Restored When Legislators Still Can’t Cross ‘Borders’?

Can Manipur Govt Be Restored When Legislators Still Can’t Cross ‘Borders’?

Ten legislators from the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) have reportedly demanded the restoration of a “popular government” in Manipur, citing the support of 44 MLAs and calling for an end to President’s Rule. Their demand comes even as the ground realities in the state—gripped by prolonged ethnic violence since May 3, 2023—remain unchanged. The central constitutional question is whether an elected government can be restored when one section of legislators remains physically and functionally excluded from the legislative process.

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New FCRA Rule Brings Censorship to NGO Publications
NB, News Briefings, May 2025 Vishal Arora NB, News Briefings, May 2025 Vishal Arora

New FCRA Rule Brings Censorship to NGO Publications

The central government now requires NGOs that receive foreign funding and engage in any form of publication to declare that they do not circulate “news content” — and to obtain a certificate from the Registrar of Newspapers for India (RNI) confirming this. This could amount to the use of financial regulation to curb the speech and advocacy roles of civil society groups.

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Court Clears Ex-Wrestling Chief in POCSO Case
NB, News Briefings, May 2025 Vishal Arora NB, News Briefings, May 2025 Vishal Arora

Court Clears Ex-Wrestling Chief in POCSO Case

A court in Delhi has cleared Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, former president of India’s wrestling federation, in a case filed under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act. The case was lodged by a minor female wrestler in 2023. The development comes at a time when the conviction rate under the child protection law stands at just 3%, according to official data.

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Why Do So Many Indians Fall for Fake News?
NB, News Briefings, May 2025 Vishal Arora NB, News Briefings, May 2025 Vishal Arora

Why Do So Many Indians Fall for Fake News?

A global study has tried to answer this question by looking closely at how people across four countries—India, France, the U.K. and the U.S.—react to news, especially in the age of social media, looking at people’s emotional reactions, thinking patterns and how their background affects the way they process information. What the study found about India is worrying—but it’s reassuring that it also points to clear solutions.

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Research Shows the World is Kinder Than We Think
NB, News Briefings, May 2025 Vishal Arora NB, News Briefings, May 2025 Vishal Arora

Research Shows the World is Kinder Than We Think

Many people today feel pessimistic about life and the world around them, largely because the news tends to focus on conflict, crisis and division. But a new research suggests this gloomy outlook may be misleading. The world appears to be far kinder—and more interconnected—than we often assume. Generosity, empathy and trust are widespread across societies, including in India.

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Bullets or Dialogue? The Tough Choices in Tackling Insurgency
NB, News Briefings, May 2025 Vishal Arora NB, News Briefings, May 2025 Vishal Arora

Bullets or Dialogue? The Tough Choices in Tackling Insurgency

As security forces wage an all-out war against Maoist rebels in Chhattisgarh, citizens remain divided over how governments should handle insurgencies—whether to respond decisively with military force or first sit down for talks. The answer isn’t as straightforward as we’d like, because rebellions and insurgencies are almost always messy, complex affairs. But let’s unpack this clearly.

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Cancer-Linked Chemicals Found in Soaps, Lotions and Shampoos
NB, News Briefings, May 2025 Vishal Arora NB, News Briefings, May 2025 Vishal Arora

Cancer-Linked Chemicals Found in Soaps, Lotions and Shampoos

A new study has found that many personal care products used daily by women—like body lotions, shampoos, soaps and cosmetics—contain chemicals that release formaldehyde, a substance known to cause cancer. These chemicals are especially common in products used by African-American and Latina women in the United States, but some of these brands are sold widely, including in India.

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States Asked to Identify ‘Illegal’ Immigrants, Without Deportation Mechanism
NB, News Briefings, May 2025 Vishal Arora NB, News Briefings, May 2025 Vishal Arora

States Asked to Identify ‘Illegal’ Immigrants, Without Deportation Mechanism

The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has reportedly issued a new directive to states and Union Territories, setting a 30-day deadline to verify the citizenship status of “suspected” undocumented immigrants from Bangladesh and Myanmar. This move is likely to create bureaucratic bottlenecks and trigger long-term humanitarian and geopolitical complications with no resolution mechanism in sight.

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Did Ashoka University Prof. Violate the Law—or Just Offend Some Sentiments?

Did Ashoka University Prof. Violate the Law—or Just Offend Some Sentiments?

The arrest of Ashoka University professor Ali Khan Mahmudabad points to a troubling truth about how law enforcement operates in an increasingly polarised public sphere: in a politically charged atmosphere, the threshold for prosecuting an ordinary citizen—academic or not—can be alarmingly low. All it takes is one complaint, one misreading, or one wilful distortion of a public remark. The system, instead of examining the context or the merit of what is said, responds as if the outrage itself is evidence of wrongdoing.

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‘No One Came’: Over 45 Manipur Villages Burned Say They Got ‘Zero’ Help

‘No One Came’: Over 45 Manipur Villages Burned Say They Got ‘Zero’ Help

Two years after their homes were torched and their lives uprooted, residents of 45 Kuki-Zo villages from Manipur’s Chandel district are still waiting for government recognition, let alone compensation or relief. Not one official relief camp has been set up for them, no state support has reached them in their name, and the government continues to deny that their villages were even affected in the May 2023 violence.

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