Bank Accounts Aren’t Enough to Bring Women Into India’s Gig Economy, ILO Warns
NB, News Briefings, August 2026 Vishal Arora NB, News Briefings, August 2026 Vishal Arora

Bank Accounts Aren’t Enough to Bring Women Into India’s Gig Economy, ILO Warns

Owning a bank account is not enough to bring women fully into India’s gig and platform economy, a policy brief by the International Labor Organization and the National Council of Applied Economic Research said. Nearly all Indian women now have a bank account, but most still can’t use one on their own, few understand the loans and insurance sold to them, and the financial products themselves are built for how men earn, not how women do.

Read More
Questions Over India Today Poll Presenting Modi as Still Popular After Youth Protests

Questions Over India Today Poll Presenting Modi as Still Popular After Youth Protests

The latest India Today-CVoter Mood of the Nation (MOTN) poll records a considerable fall in support for Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Bharatiya Janata Party, despite relying largely on interviews conducted before the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP)-initiated protests at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar grew into a nationwide movement demanding accountability. However, India Today and sister organisation Aaj Tak presented it mainly as evidence that Modi remains popular and the NDA would retain power.

Read More
The State Has No Right to Regulate Sexual Conduct of Adult Women
NB, News Briefings, August 2026 Vishal Arora NB, News Briefings, August 2026 Vishal Arora

The State Has No Right to Regulate Sexual Conduct of Adult Women

Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi has written to Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, demanding an end to the reported practice of requiring female Adivasi students returning after an absence to undergo pregnancy tests before being readmitted to government hostels. No student should have to prove that she is not pregnant or has not had sex to retain her accommodation and continue her education.

Read More
Why the Reported Attack on CJP’s Ashutosh Ranka During a Rajasthan School Visit Is a Serious Incident
NB, News Briefings, August 2026 Vishal Arora NB, News Briefings, August 2026 Vishal Arora

Why the Reported Attack on CJP’s Ashutosh Ranka During a Rajasthan School Visit Is a Serious Incident

Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) co-convener Ashutosh Ranka and his team travelled to Rampura-Kanwarpura village in Jaipur district on August 21 to investigate a government primary school reportedly operating from a cattle enclosure because its building was unsafe. According to reports, members of the delegation, including a woman, were chased, beaten and pelted with stones, while their vehicles and phones were damaged. Ranka said his clothes were torn and that one volunteer suffered a fractured hand. The incident is serious for at least five reasons.

Read More
Is the Government Combining the Census and the National Population Register?
NB, News Briefings, August 2026 Vishal Arora NB, News Briefings, August 2026 Vishal Arora

Is the Government Combining the Census and the National Population Register?

Is the government using the Census to quietly collect information for the National Population Register (NPR), even though it has not officially announced that the NPR is being updated? Former senior Census official K. Narayanan Unni told a media outlet that some of the 40 questions announced by the Home Ministry appear more useful for the NPR than for a normal Census.

Read More
Citizens Waited for Basic Services While Public Money Went Unspent, CAG Reports Suggest
NB, News Briefings, August 2026 Vishal Arora NB, News Briefings, August 2026 Vishal Arora

Citizens Waited for Basic Services While Public Money Went Unspent, CAG Reports Suggest

Recent reports from the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) found that authorities left large sums allocated for disaster assistance, drinking water, housing, pollution control and railway passenger amenities unspent, raising questions about why parliamentary allocations were not converted into services for citizens.

Read More
Why Governments Feel Threatened by Women Protesters
NB, News Briefings, August 2026 Vishal Arora NB, News Briefings, August 2026 Vishal Arora

Why Governments Feel Threatened by Women Protesters

After the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) protests ended in Delhi’s Jantar Mantar on July 25 following Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan’s resignation, women and girls who had participated publicly and visibly in the agitation became the principal targets of a doxxing and harassment campaign. The campaign reveals that those behind it see women protesters as a threat and want to push them into roles defined by their own patriarchal beliefs.

Read More
See Jharkhand Protests From Students’ Perspective, Not Politicians’

See Jharkhand Protests From Students’ Perspective, Not Politicians’

While government-job aspirants without party affiliations appear to constitute the principal base of the ongoing protests in Ranchi, Jharkhand, the agitation is not organisationally unified. This distinction is important because attempts by political groups to influence the protests risk diverting attention from young people’s genuine concerns about education, recruitment and institutional reform, and from their attempt to raise these concerns democratically.

Read More
As India Grows Older, Its Digital Economy Must Protect Senior Citizens

As India Grows Older, Its Digital Economy Must Protect Senior Citizens

India’s digital revolution has transformed the way citizens bank, invest, receive pensions and access public services. However, beneath this success story lies a growing vulnerability that deserves far greater attention. Cyber fraud is no longer merely a technology or policing issue; it has become an ageing issue.

Read More
Government’s Disconnect With Gen Z Is Visible in Its Three Miscalculations

Government’s Disconnect With Gen Z Is Visible in Its Three Miscalculations

A protest movement built and led by India’s youngest citizens forced Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan to resign, following weeks of hunger strikes and mass demonstrations. The government’s police crackdown subsequently backfired. Relying on its past successes in curbing protests and dissent, the administration led by officials decades older than the protesters tried to use silence and force during those weeks. However, the government and its advisors failed to realise that this time they were dealing with a generation they had no experience managing.

Read More
Another Protest at Jantar Mantar, This Time Over Deaths No One Is Counting
NB, News Briefings, August 2026 Asad Ashraf NB, News Briefings, August 2026 Asad Ashraf

Another Protest at Jantar Mantar, This Time Over Deaths No One Is Counting

The Cockroach Janta Party has decided, for now, to remain a movement rather than register as a political party, leaving the final word to a leadership meeting set for August 5 and 6 in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar in Maharashtra. The choice admits that a movement’s power can disappear the moment it starts competing for votes instead of making demands from the government.

Read More
Citizens Have 5 Economic Reasons to Oppose the Government’s E25 Petrol Plan
NB, News Briefings, July 2026 Vishal Arora NB, News Briefings, July 2026 Vishal Arora

Citizens Have 5 Economic Reasons to Oppose the Government’s E25 Petrol Plan

The central government is reportedly considering delaying its plan to increase the amount of ethanol mixed with petrol from the current 20% to 25%. The government’s rationale is that the move would reduce India’s dependence on imported crude oil, lower some vehicle emissions and create a bigger market for Indian farmers. However, these stated public policy objectives overshadow several economic principles that lie behind citizens’ opposition to the proposal.

Read More
West Bengal’s Fight Against ‘Goondas’ Comes With a Democratic Risk
NB, News Briefings, July 2026 Vishal Arora NB, News Briefings, July 2026 Vishal Arora

West Bengal’s Fight Against ‘Goondas’ Comes With a Democratic Risk

The West Bengal Assembly has passed two laws that allow authorities to place people identified as “goondas” (violent criminals, gang members or habitual offenders) in preventive detention for up to 12 months and confiscate their property to compensate victims of damage caused during public disorder. The move is causing concern that these laws could be used against political opponents, activists and protesters because of the broad powers they grant the government.

Read More
Why India’s Heat Crisis Falls Hardest on Dalits and Muslims

Why India’s Heat Crisis Falls Hardest on Dalits and Muslims

India’s caste system has long assigned the most physically exposed forms of labour to the communities least able to refuse them. That old arrangement has taken on new urgency as summer temperatures push past the limits of human endurance. Sections of the Muslim community also bear a disproportionate burden during heatwaves because of residential exclusion.

Read More
Photo Feature: Masks, Placards and Anger at the Cockroach Janta Party Protest
NB, News Briefings, June 2026, Featured Commentary Tej Bahadur Singh NB, News Briefings, June 2026, Featured Commentary Tej Bahadur Singh

Photo Feature: Masks, Placards and Anger at the Cockroach Janta Party Protest

Thousands of young people, including students who appeared for recent NEET and CBSE examinations, their parents, student unions, job aspirants, and civil society groups, gathered at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi on June 6 for a protest organised by the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP). Participants demanded the resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan following the NEET paper leak controversy and a series of examination-related irregularities reported in recent years.

Read More
A Telegram Bot Is Selling Indians’ Personal Data for ₹2.50 Per Search

A Telegram Bot Is Selling Indians’ Personal Data for ₹2.50 Per Search

Twenty-three-year-old Maryam Siddiqui (name changed) was trying to leave her family, where she said she had been facing harassment from an extended family member. She left her home in a small town in Bihar and travelled to Patna without informing her parents. After searching for her for ten days and filing a police complaint, her family was advised by a friend to use a bot that illegally tracks a person’s exact location, provides detailed coordinates and reveals sensitive personal information.

Read More
The ‘Politics of the Unprotected Body’: Why Women From Northeast India Remain Vulnerable to Violence

The ‘Politics of the Unprotected Body’: Why Women From Northeast India Remain Vulnerable to Violence

Repeated racial and gender-based abuse against women from Northeast India points to a deeper structural failure of the Indian state to provide equal protection to all citizens. Law enforcement agencies, courts and policymakers often acknowledge such incidents, yet their racial dimension frequently disappears from legal and institutional responses, producing a pattern of unequal citizenship. Women from the Northeast thus occupy what may be called the “unprotected body,” formally included within the republic but repeatedly denied the full protection of its institutions.

Read More