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‘$21 Million USAID Fund to India’: What’s the Controversy About?
U.S. President Donald Trump has claimed that the Biden administration allocated $21 million through USAID for “voter turnout” in India, now calling it a “kickback scheme” without providing evidence or elaborating on who really benefitted. He suggests that the funds were meant to influence India’s 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
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BBC – Indian Pharma Firm Illegally Supplying Opioids to Africa
An investigation by the BBC says that an Indian pharmaceutical company, based in Mumbai, is sending banned opioid-based pills to West African countries. The report shows these products fueling a public health crisis in nations such as Ghana, Nigeria and Cote D’Ivoire.
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Is the Targeting of Ranveer Allahbadia, Samay Raina a Prelude to Censorship?
An op-ed in The Hindu by Apar Gupta, a lawyer and advocate for digital freedom, suggests that the central government might be leveraging controversies involving crude remarks made by YouTubers Ranveer Allahbadia and Samay Raina on their show, “India’s Got Latent,” to advocate for stricter regulation of digital media.
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Nepalese Student’s Death in Odisha Spurs Demands for Justice, Anti-Racism Protections
A 20-year-old Nepalese engineering student, Prakriti Lamsal, at the private university Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology (KIIT) in Bhubaneswar, Odisha, died in an alleged suicide on Feb. 16, sparking demands for justice for her family and enforce measures against racial mistreatment.
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Delhi Earthquake: Why a 4.2 Quake Felt Strong; What Comes Next?
A magnitude 4.2 earthquake struck the Haryana-Delhi-Uttar Pradesh region early on Feb. 17, at 5.36 am, sending tremors across the National Capital Region. Occurring at a shallow depth of 10 km, the earthquake felt stronger than expected and led to concerns about the possibility of aftershocks, and whether it could be a precursor to a larger event.
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Was the Delhi Railway Station Stampede a Preventable Tragedy?
The stampede at New Delhi Railway Station on the night of February 15, which claimed 18 lives and injured several others, points to a failure on the part of both the railway authorities and the government to anticipate and prevent overcrowding during the Maha Kumbh period.
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South India Leads in Local Self-Governance: Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu
The south Indian states of Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu have been ranked at the top in the country’s Panchayat Devolution Index, which measures how well state governments transfer powers, responsibilities and resources to local governing bodies called Panchayats.
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Why Journalists and Media Outlets Are Leaving X (Twitter)
Journalists and media outlets are leaving X, formerly known as Twitter, in large numbers. They cite shifting moderation policies, increased hate speech and concerns about misinformation as primary reasons for their departure.
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Report Raises Concern Over Corruption in India’s Climate Finance
India recorded a corruption score of 38 in Transparency International’s 2024 Corruption Perceptions Index, marking a one-point decrease from the previous year. Placing India 96th among 180 countries measured, the Index suggested India “must do much more to safeguard clean energy initiatives.”
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Impact on India as Trump Imposes 25% Tariffs on Aluminium
U.S. President Donald Trump is imposing a 25% tariff on steel and aluminium imports into the United States to bolster his efforts to increase domestic production. These new duties, especially on aluminium, could also potentially strain ordinary citizens in India if it drives up prices.
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Why Indian Media Organisations Are Suing Open AI
Leading Indian news outlets want to join a lawsuit against OpenAI, claiming it used their copyrighted content without authorisation to train ChatGPT. They are seeking damages and a legal directive to stop the alleged misuse of their material.
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Supreme Court: Police Must Inform Accused of Arrest Reasons
The Supreme Court on Feb. 7 mandated that police must immediately inform the accused of the grounds for their arrest. The Court stated that failing to do so violates fundamental rights and invalidates the arrest.
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Tamil Nadu Govt. Tells Court Governor Acting as a Political Opponent
The Tamil Nadu government told the Supreme Court that Governor R.N. Ravi behaved like a political opponent by withholding assent on multiple bills, arguing that his actions blocked duly passed legislation and undermined the authority of the state assembly. The court questioned the Governor’s decision to keep some bills pending for three years before declaring his intention to withhold assent and refer them to the President.
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Assam’s NRC Misstep: Court Demands Deportation of ‘Illegal Foreign Nationals’
The Supreme Court has rebuked the Assam government for keeping people it has declared as “foreigners” in indefinite detention and for its slow pace in arranging their deportation. State officials claim they do not know where to send them. It exposes a fundamental problem rooted in the National Register of Citizens (NRC): if individuals are declared foreign solely because their documents are considered insufficient, what happens next?
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Analysis of Independent Forensic Report on ‘Manipur Tapes’
Leaked audio recordings, known as “Manipur Tapes” and purportedly featuring the voice of Manipur Chief Minister N. Biren Singh, were examined by an independent forensic lab, Truth Labs Forensic Services. The examination concluded with over 93% certainty that the voice in the recordings belongs to the Chief Minister. Based on the report, below is an analysis of how the tapes were analysed and how forensic experts arrived at their conclusion.
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Manipur Violence: Forensic Report on Tapes Alleging CM Biren Singh’s Role Ordered
The Supreme Court has ordered a forensic report on audio tapes allegedly linking Chief Minister N. Biren Singh to ethnic violence in Manipur. The state government is allegedly seeking to arrest the petitioner who raised these allegations before the court.
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India’s 2025 Budget Breakdown for Everyday Citizens
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman unveiled India’s full-year budget in Parliament on Feb. 1. The budget seems to fall short of directly addressing critical economic challenges that impact the vast majority of the country’s populace, including youth unemployment, stagnating wages and widening income inequality.
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Court on Delhi Riots: Is Police Trying to Protect Ex-BJP MLA?
A Delhi court labeled police action during the 2020 northeast Delhi riots a “hate crime” and demanded an FIR against the inspector of the police station. It also questioned whether officers neglected or concealed allegations involving former Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA Kapil Mishra, instructing the complainant to seek legal action against him.
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DeepSeek Claims to Represent the Chinese Government
To test the new Chinese AI, DeepSeek, Newsreel Asia interviewed the chat system to assess whether it exhibited bias in its responses or generated content. The results were striking. It appeared highly protective of its home country, yet it was also upfront about representing the Chinese government and the Communist Party of China. Newsreel Asia asked the same questions to ChatGPT-4.0 to compare the responses.
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Supreme Court: Law Needed to Protect Domestic Workers’ Rights
The Supreme Court noted the absence of statutory safeguards for millions of domestic workers in India and directed the Union government to consider passing a protective law. The court observed that this workforce remains exposed to exploitation and poor conditions without proper legal rights.