A perfect storm of geopolitical crisis and policy paralysis is pushing India’s poorest into a devastating double-bind. The ongoing war in Iran has sent shockwaves through global oil markets, and as LPG prices skyrocket and factory slowdowns ripple across urban centers, a massive exodus of migrant workers is underway. But for millions fleeing the city’s hardships, the safety net of rural employment has all but vanished, leaving them stranded without work or income.

  A growing body of scientific evidence linking ultra-processed food (UPF) consumption during pregnancy to adverse maternal and neonatal outcomes has sparked fresh concern among public health experts, with Indian nutrition advocates warning of serious implications for the country’s already strained maternal health landscape.

  Over the past decade and a half,  Gujarat  has witnessed a remarkable resurgence of Dalit agitations that mark a decisive shift from accommodation to confrontation, according to a major new study published in the journal  National Identities . The research, conducted by  Mahendra Parmar  of the  Central University of Gujarat , draws on 18 in-depth interviews with victims and activists to document how  B.R. Ambedkar ’s radical thought has become the central political resource shaping Dalit identity and mobilisation in the state.

 A new report,  Toxic Finance , has sought to expose the critical role of the global financial sector in driving a massive and controversial expansion of the  petrochemical industry  across the United States. The analysis, compiled by a coalition of environmental and human rights organizations including the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL) and  Break Free From Plastic , claims that banks and investors have provided the vast sums of capital necessary to build over 100 new facilities or expansions, despite significant risks to human health, the climate, and the financial system itself.

  M. K. Bhadrakumar , a career diplomat with three decades of service in postings across the former Soviet Union, Pakistan, Iran, Afghanistan, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Germany, and Turkey, has warned that the current truce in the  US–Iran war  is “fragile and ridden with contradictions.” Writing in his blog  India Punchline , Bhadrakumar argues that while Pakistan has emerged as a surprising broker of dialogue, the durability of the ceasefire remains uncertain.

  A recent report published in the British media outlet  The Guardian , titled “Workers carved the largest modern Hindu temple in the west. Now, some have incurable lung disease,” took me back to my visits to the  New Jersey mandir —first in 2022, when it was still under construction, though parts of it were open to visitors, and again in 2024, after its completion.

  Civil society organisations and stakeholders from across India have presented stark evidence before the  Parliamentary Standing Committee on Rural Development and Panchayati Raj , alleging systemic violations of the  Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement (RFCTLARR) Act, 2013 , particularly in  Scheduled Areas  and tribal regions.

A new report published in March 2026 by the  Centre for Financial Accountability  and the Tax The Top campaign paints a stark picture of deepening economic disparity in India, documenting a concentration of wealth that it argues is “comparable to colonial times.” Titled  Wealth Tracker India | Tax the Top. Close the Gap , the compilation presents data from the  World Inequality Database  and the  Hurun Rich List  to illustrate the meteoric rise of the ultra-wealthy alongside the stagnation and debt burdens of the majority.

  In a compelling new analysis that challenges conventional geographical assumptions about the ancient epic, writer and mythologist Devdutt Pattanaik has traced the roots of the Ramayana to the forests and river systems of Central and Eastern India, rather than the peninsular south or the modern island nation of Sri Lanka.