Adolescent girls in many parts of India miss several days of school each month during their periods due to lack of sanitary products, inadequate toilets and fear of public embarrassment. In response to this widespread exclusion, the Supreme Court of India has ruled that access to menstrual health is part of the fundamental right to life under Article 21 of the Constitution. The ruling affirms that denying girls the means to manage their periods in school violates their right to live with dignity, safety and equal opportunity.

The Economic Survey 2025-26, released on January 29, presents an economy that appears strong in headline numbers, yet several of its findings raise concern for everyday life, with direct effects on households through jobs, incomes, prices, security and access to public support.

A fatal plane crash near Baramati on January 28 killed Maharashtra’s Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar and four others during a chartered flight operated by a private aviation company. The incident demands an examination of whether India’s aviation system contains the structural safeguards found in more developed regulatory environments.

A new study, which analysed healthcare spending in India from 1991 to 2023, has shown that when the government spends less on healthcare, families are forced to cover more of their medical costs on their own, often pushing them into debt or leading them to delay or skip treatment. This means every funding decision by the government directly affects whether healthcare becomes more accessible or turns into a financial burden for the majority of the citizens.

A Kuki-Zo tribal group has condemned the Indian government’s conferment of the Shaurya Chakra to a Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) officer allegedly involved in the November 2024 killing of 10 civilians in Manipur, calling it a “state endorsement of the extrajudicial killing.”

Every party or coalition that comes to power brings its own definition of “good governance.” And each version reflects a political ideology. But in doing so, they shift attention away from the basic and non-negotiable duties a government owes its citizens – the duties written into the Constitution. There is one article, and sadly we seldom talk about it, that defines with precision the constitutional instruction on what governance must achieve.

A sitting judge of the Supreme Court of India, Justice Ujjal Bhuyan, has publicly stated that the transfer of judges is solely an internal matter of the judiciary and that government involvement in such decisions is constitutionally impermissible. His statement a recent instance in which the Supreme Court collegium, the body responsible for judicial appointments and transfers, formally recorded that a transfer had occurred at the executive’s request.

Doctors in eastern India have identified at least five people infected with Nipah virus cases, including doctors and nurses, and nearly one hundred others have been told to isolate themselves at home. One patient is reported to be in critical condition. For many, this raises a basic but serious question, what is this virus, and should they be worried? The short answer is that panic is not necessary, but paying attention is.

India’s cities are growing louder in ways that endanger public health. New findings confirm that this environmental stressor affects both body and mind, yet monitoring remains inconsistent and enforcement weak.

The Supreme Court of India has ruled that state governments have full legal authority to prosecute central government officials for corruption through their own police forces or Anti-Corruption Bureaus (ACBs), without needing any permission or involvement from the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). This is a welcome development for state governments, especially those run by opposition parties, and for citizens, because it strengthens legal accountability and curbs the Centre’s ability to delay or block investigations by claiming that only central agencies can act.

India is ranked 63rd out of 89 countries in the 2026 Quality of Life Index, with a total score of 122.3 which is below the global average. The rankings are based on multiple measurable factors that affect daily life, including cost of living, healthcare, traffic, pollution, property prices, safety and purchasing power.

India could save about $170 billion (14.1 lakh crore rupees) by retiring its coal-fired power plants earlier than scheduled, according to a new study, which adds that cutting emissions can also improve public health and economic efficiency within India’s current energy system.

A 20-year-old Kuki-Zo tribal woman who was abducted, gang-raped and left for dead during the early days of the ethnic violence in Manipur died on January 10 from medical complications caused by the injuries she suffered nearly 20 months earlier. Her mother, speaking to Newsreel Asia, said all she wants now is justice for the heinous crime.

Is India’s workforce growing, but without a matching rise in job quality? The International Labour Organization’s World Employment and Social Outlook: Trends 2026 report shows that in Southern Asia, where India is a key contributor to regional trends, employment growth is concentrated in informal, insecure and low paid work. This means millions are working more but still not earning enough or building stable futures.

In 2025, India recorded 1,318 in-person hate speech events, averaging more than three per day and overwhelmingly led by Hindu nationalist groups and political actors affiliated with the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, according to a report by the India Hate Lab. The report supports the inference that a political choice is behind the sustained scale of public incitement, which undermines both the rule of law and the idea of equal citizenship.

The central government has brought into force the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2020, repealing the two special laws that had governed the service conditions and wages of working journalists since 1955. The change marks a retreat from the idea that journalism requires tailored labour protection and replaces it with a generic framework that weakens the professional security of the press.

A software engineer, Marmik Patel, applied to hundreds of jobs without success before changing his approach. By building products and networking in person, he eventually drew interest from over 80 recruiters, he shared on X. Does this suggest that traditional methods like mass online applications are no longer effective in competitive markets where access to opportunity is unevenly distributed?