Delayed Census Denies Food Security to 120 Million Indians
NB, News Briefings, May 2025 Vishal Arora NB, News Briefings, May 2025 Vishal Arora

Delayed Census Denies Food Security to 120 Million Indians

The delay in population Census has left over 120 million people without access to subsidised foodgrain under the National Food Security Act (NFSA). The shortfall, attributed to outdated beneficiary data from the 2011 Census, is pushing millions towards food insecurity, despite the government continuing to operate one of the world’s largest food distribution programmes.

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India’s Press Freedom Ranking Improves, but Core Issues Remain
NB, News Briefings, May 2025 Vishal Arora NB, News Briefings, May 2025 Vishal Arora

India’s Press Freedom Ranking Improves, but Core Issues Remain

India climbed eight spots in the 2025 World Press Freedom Index, moving from 159 last year to 151 out of 180 countries. The index by Reporters Without Borders (RSF), released on May 3—World Press Freedom Day—paints a bleak picture of India’s media environment, describing a deepening crisis that affects how journalism is practised and received across the country.

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A Manipur Scholar’s Mission to Rescue Kuki-Zo Wisdom Lost in Violence

A Manipur Scholar’s Mission to Rescue Kuki-Zo Wisdom Lost in Violence

After ethnic violence erupted in Manipur on May 3, 2023, hundreds of Kuki-Zo settlements mapping the community’s lineage burned in the following weeks and months. “When a village is burned, its history, culture and identity burn with it,” says Dr. Jangkholam Haokip, a Kuki-Zo tribal scholar who has returned to Churachandpur to salvage what he calls “irreplaceable human wisdom.”

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Today’s Young Adults Aren’t as Happy as They Used to Be
NB, News Briefings, May 2025 Vishal Arora NB, News Briefings, May 2025 Vishal Arora

Today’s Young Adults Aren’t as Happy as They Used to Be

For many years, researchers believed that people were generally happy when they were young, then their happiness levels dipped during midlife, and finally started rising again as they got older. However, a large study involving over 200,000 people across more than 20 countries now shows that people in their late teens and twenties today are not as happy or well-adjusted as people of the same age used to be in the past.

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Is an India–Pakistan War Likely?
NB, News Briefings, May 2025 Vishal Arora NB, News Briefings, May 2025 Vishal Arora

Is an India–Pakistan War Likely?

The April 22 terror attack in Pahalgam, Kashmir, which killed 26 civilians, has pushed India and Pakistan into one of their most dangerous standoffs in recent years. Daily gunfire is being reported across the Line of Control (LoC), diplomatic ties have been cut off and military activity is intensifying. Though there has been no formal declaration of war, the present situation carries all the signs of a serious military escalation between two nuclear-armed neighbours.

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Lynching in Mangaluru, a City Haunted by Hate

Lynching in Mangaluru, a City Haunted by Hate

Ashraf, a Muslim and daily wage labourer from Wayanad, Kerala, had arrived in this coastal Karnataka city just weeks earlier. On the evening of April 27, he was found dead near a temple in Kudupu—barely 10 km from Mangaluru city’s centre. Reportedly killed on the sidelines of a cricket match, his death was a brutal act that felt grimly familiar.

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BJP Workers Beat Journalist for Raising ‘Security Lapse’ in Kashmir Terror Attack
NB, News Briefings, April 2025 Vishal Arora NB, News Briefings, April 2025 Vishal Arora

BJP Workers Beat Journalist for Raising ‘Security Lapse’ in Kashmir Terror Attack

Rakesh Sharma, 58, a senior correspondent with the Hindi daily Dainik Jagran, was recently beaten by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) workers in Kathua, Jammu and Kashmir, while covering a roadside protest over the April 22 terror attack in Pahalgam. They attacked him for a simple reason: he had asked someone at the rally why the party kept burning effigies of Pakistan instead of addressing what he called a “security lapse.”

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Study: How Distance Blocks Healthcare for India’s Elderly
NB, News Briefings, April 2025 Vishal Arora NB, News Briefings, April 2025 Vishal Arora

Study: How Distance Blocks Healthcare for India’s Elderly

Imagine being over 60 and having to travel 14 kilometres for a routine check-up and more than 40 kilometres for a hospital bed; a new study in a journal, The Lancet Regional Health – Southeast Asia, shows this is normal for India’s 138 million older adults, exposing how sheer distance—more than cost or doctors—now dictates whether they receive care at all.

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UN Urges ‘Maximum Restraint’ amid India-Pakistan Tension after Kashmir Attack
NB, News Briefings, April 2025 Vishal Arora NB, News Briefings, April 2025 Vishal Arora

UN Urges ‘Maximum Restraint’ amid India-Pakistan Tension after Kashmir Attack

Amid tensions between India and Pakistan over the April 22 terror attack near Pahalgam in Jammu and Kashmir, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres, speaking through his spokesman Stéphane Dujarric, has “appealed to both governments to exercise maximum restraint” and asked them to keep the situation from sliding any further.

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Great Nicobar Project Risks Shompen Genocide, Rights Group Warns
NB, News Briefings, April 2025 Vishal Arora NB, News Briefings, April 2025 Vishal Arora

Great Nicobar Project Risks Shompen Genocide, Rights Group Warns

The central government has approved a 720 billion (72,000 crore) rupees plan to cut away roughly a third of Great Nicobar Island for a deep-water transshipment port, an international airport, a township and a power plant. Civil society groups and scientists say the scheme will strip forests, choke rivers, ruin nesting beaches and expose the Shompen – one of the world’s most isolated tribes – to disease and displacement that could wipe out their culture.

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All 26 Victims of Pahalgam Terror Attack Were Men
NB, News Briefings, April 2025 Vishal Arora NB, News Briefings, April 2025 Vishal Arora

All 26 Victims of Pahalgam Terror Attack Were Men

Gunmen opened fire on tourist tents in Baisaran meadow above Pahalgam in Jammu and Kashmir on April 22, killing at least 26 people – all men – and injuring several more, according to media reports, which quote witnesses as saying that the terrorists, who reached the car-free pasture supposedly on foot or horseback, accused some families of supporting Prime Minister Narendra Modi, shot the men at close range and then escaped into the surrounding pine forest.

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Delhi High Court Rebukes Ramdev for ‘Sharbat Jihad’ Remarks
NB, News Briefings, April 2025 Vishal Arora NB, News Briefings, April 2025 Vishal Arora

Delhi High Court Rebukes Ramdev for ‘Sharbat Jihad’ Remarks

The Delhi High Court expressed strong disapproval against Baba Ramdev, founder of Patanjali Foods, for using the misleading and provocative term “Rooh Afza jihad” in communal remarks targeting Hamdard, the pharmaceutical and food company famous for its popular drink, Rooh Afza. The matter came up before Justice Amit Bansal, who, after hearing preliminary arguments on April 22, warned Ramdev’s counsel of issuing a stringent order if such behaviour continued.

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India Plans to Limit Nuclear Liability to Boost Trade and Energy

India Plans to Limit Nuclear Liability to Boost Trade and Energy

The Indian government has proposed to ease its nuclear liability laws, driven mostly by commercial and geopolitical goals, according to Reuters. The move involves a shift in how legal responsibility is assigned in the event of a nuclear accident, raising concerns that public interest may have been sidelined.

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Centre’s Forensic Report on ‘Manipur Tapes’ Implicating Biren Singh Ready
NB, News Briefings, April 2025 Vishal Arora NB, News Briefings, April 2025 Vishal Arora

Centre’s Forensic Report on ‘Manipur Tapes’ Implicating Biren Singh Ready

Weeks before the second anniversary of the outbreak of violence in Manipur, the Union government has informed the Supreme Court that a forensic report on the leaked audio recordings—referred to as the “Manipur Tapes” and allegedly featuring former Manipur Chief Minister N. Biren Singh, implicating him in the unrest—is ready and will soon be submitted in a sealed envelope.

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Supreme Court Pushes Centre to Defend Waqf Amendment
NB, News Briefings, April 2025 Vishal Arora NB, News Briefings, April 2025 Vishal Arora

Supreme Court Pushes Centre to Defend Waqf Amendment

During the Supreme Court’s hearing on the constitutional validity of the Waqf (Amendment) Act, 2025, Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna posed pointed questions to both the government and the petitioners. The Act, which came into force recently, has been challenged by several petitioners who argue that it infringes on religious freedoms and the administrative autonomy of the Muslim community.

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Tamil Nadu’s New Panel to Challenge Alleged Central Overreach
NB, News Briefings, April 2025 Vishal Arora NB, News Briefings, April 2025 Vishal Arora

Tamil Nadu’s New Panel to Challenge Alleged Central Overreach

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin has announced the formation of a high-level, three-member committee tasked with reviewing the status of state rights under the Indian Constitution and recommending ways to preserve them. The committee, formed in response to alleged overreach by the Centre, will be chaired by retired Supreme Court judge Kurian Joseph.

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