Media reports indicate that at the start of the southwest monsoon season, lightning strikes caused the death of over 70 people in the states of Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh on a single day i.e. 11th July, 2021. Prior to those separate events related to human casualty caused by thunderbolts, eighteen elephants were found dead on a hilltop at Kandali Proposed Reserve Forest situated in Assam's Nagaon district on...

-Scroll.in In a world of powerful spying tools, Indian democracy urgently needs checks on intelligence gathering. With allegations that opposition leaders, Union ministers, bureaucrats, an election commissioner and even a Supreme Court judge could have been spied on, the Pegasus spyware scandal points to one of the most egregious misuses of power in India’s history. The Israeli manufacturer of Pegasus insists that it only sells its weapons-grade spyware to governments, prompting allegations that...

-Down to Earth The attempt on the part of the incumbent government, to project the Bengali Muslim community as a civilisational threat to Assam’s indigenous communities is not going to help Debates on population control gained momentum in the state of Assam after the Himanta Biswa Sarma-led government assumed power in the state in May 2021. From the beginning of his tenure, the chief minister has been asserting that his government stands for...

-The Hindu As children in rural India, with little access to gadgets and networks, are pushed into deeper marginalisation, a look at some initiatives that try to change this Eleven-year-old Chaithanya has not been to school in over a year. On a Sunday morning, she is glued to the television in her house in rural Ravugodlu, Karnataka, watching an English lesson. With schools closed, many children like Chaithanya are making use of...

-Down to Earth West Bengal, along with Bangladesh, received two million on-ground lightning bolts The region of West Bengal in India and Bangladesh is among the most vulnerable in South Asia to lethal lightning strikes, according to a recent report. West Bengal received the highest number of lightning strikes per square kilometer in 2020, followed by Jharkhand, according to South Asia lightning Report ,2020 by Earth Networks, a global weather intelligence agency. The company’s...