In 2017, journalist Gauri Lankesh was assassinated in Bangalore days before she planned to publish an article about disinformation. Over five years later, Forbidden Stories pursued Lankesh’s work on fake news and explored new leads in her murder case Phineas Rueckert & Srishti Jaswal - Forbidden Stories Oishika Neogi - Confluence Media Prajwal Bhat - Newsminute Laura Höflinger - Der Spiegel  On September 5, 2017, as 55-year-old journalist Gauri Lankesh walked up to the entryway...

Budget 2023's allocations for most critical social security schemes have declined in real terms, says economist Jean Dreze - IndiaSpend The last full Union budget before the next general elections in 2024, which was presented on February 1, gets "a big zero" in terms of welfare spending from economist and social Activist Jean Dreze. Budget allocations for most critical social security schemes have declined in real terms, Dreze said. The Union government withdrew...

Shashikant Warishe was mowed down allegedly by the subject of his last report on a controversial refinery - Newslaundry “He was the only journalist who covered the refinery protests…From the time the protests began until now, he covered everything…other newspapers barely gave coverage to the issue. People here liked him a lot because he was the sole journalist who cared about their issues.” That’s how Dipak Joshi remembers his friend Shashikant Warishe,...

The Telegraph Over 60 scientists have signed a statement accusing the Indian Council of Agriculture Research of trying to ‘silence the voices’ of public sector scientists Sections of scientists on Monday asked India’s apex agricultural research agency to revoke what they described as a “gag order” intended to prevent former government researchers from articulating concerns about genetically modified mustard. Over 60 scientists have signed a statement accusing the Indian Council of Agriculture...

-Down to Earth The central government has mandated digitally capturing the attendance of all workers under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGnregs). Labourers and Activist groups have opposed this and pointed out several loopholes in the move. The National Mobile Monitoring System, which came into effect on January 1, 2023, was launched with claims of bringing transparency and eliminating corruption at the ground level. Pilot tests began in May 2021 at...