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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India’s Alleged Secret ‘Rendition’ of Rohingya Refugees

India’s Alleged Secret ‘Rendition’ of Rohingya Refugees

Indian authorities have allegedly “abandoned”—rather than deported—40 Rohingya refugees in international waters near the Myanmar maritime border, forcing women, children and the elderly to swim to safety using life jackets. The action could be seen as a “secret rendition,” a term used to describe the covert transfer of individuals across borders without legal process.

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What Would Tagore Say About Today’s India-Pakistan War Rhetoric?

What Would Tagore Say About Today’s India-Pakistan War Rhetoric?

As India and Pakistan exchanged fire recently, Indian media turned the conflict into a nationalist spectacle—fuelling misinformation, stirring up communal identity and drowning out voices of reason. In moments like these, warnings by poet-philosopher Rabindranath Tagore—who wrote India’s national anthem—about nationalism read less like history and more like a diagnosis.

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The Trolling of Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri Shows What Hate Does
NB, News Briefings, May 2025 Vishal Arora NB, News Briefings, May 2025 Vishal Arora

The Trolling of Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri Shows What Hate Does

Hate distorts what we expect from our governments. It teaches us to demand emotion over reason, revenge over restraint and spectacle over seriousness. It normalises irrationality. And when governments allow or tacitly support this hate to spread unchecked, it doesn’t remain focused on the supposed enemy—it turns inward, undermining public servants, weakening institutions, and sabotaging the very public interest it claims to defend. The online targeting of Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri is a clear example.

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Trump’s Kashmir Offer Shows the US Still Doesn’t Get India-Pakistan

Trump’s Kashmir Offer Shows the US Still Doesn’t Get India-Pakistan

By any diplomatic yardstick, U.S. President Donald Trump’s offer to mediate between India and Pakistan over Kashmir is misplaced. It rests on one of Washington’s most enduring and dangerous misconceptions—that Kashmir is the core problem between the two countries, a notion his predecessor Barack Obama also held.

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Independent News Site The Wire Was Blocked Amid India Pakistan Tensions
NB, News Briefings, May 2025 Vishal Arora NB, News Briefings, May 2025 Vishal Arora

Independent News Site The Wire Was Blocked Amid India Pakistan Tensions

Independent news portal The Wire became inaccessible to readers across India on May 9 after internet service providers displayed notices saying the site had been blocked on government orders, according to the media outlet. The disruption coincided with rising hostilities between India and Pakistan and came just weeks after the 2025 World Press Freedom Index placed India at 151 out of 180 countries.

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India-Pakistan Conflict: Fresh Firing Follows Night of Heavy Cross-Border Attacks
NB, News Briefings, May 2025 Vishal Arora NB, News Briefings, May 2025 Vishal Arora

India-Pakistan Conflict: Fresh Firing Follows Night of Heavy Cross-Border Attacks

From the early hours of May 8 to the morning of May 9, a sharp escalation unfolded along the India-Pakistan border, particularly around the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir. The 24-hour period was marked by intense military activity, with Pakistani troops reportedly resuming fire early on May 9, amid mutual accusations and growing international concern over the threat of a full-scale conflict.

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