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Swaminarayan, untouchability and the 'we are not Hindu' argument

  Following my blog on why the Eiffel Tower authorities should take all the blame for giving in to the Swaminarayan sadhus ’ bizarre demand to “invisibilise” women, including its female staff, during their visit to the internationally renowned Paris tourist centre on September 5, an interesting comment by one of the top academics drew my attention to something I vaguely knew about one of India’s most powerful and richest religious sects.
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Planet at precipice, but 'positive tipping points' offer blueprint for rapid recovery, claims new study

  The Earth is approaching a series of irreversible environmental thresholds that threaten the stability of life on the planet, but a landmark new study argues that the same systems science that predicts catastrophe also offers a blueprint for rapid, self-propelling recovery. 
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From Kukra to Dharampuri: People's Commission exposes human toll of India's most disputed dam

  A scathing independent citizens' inquiry has concluded that the Sardar Sarovar Project on the Narmada river, one of India's most ambitious multipurpose dams, has systematically violated the legal and human rights of tens of thousands of displaced families while overstating its economic benefits and understating its ecological costs.
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How the cereal industry engineered breakfast dominance — and why India faces the same playbook

 In a detailed interview published by The Examination on September 10, 2026, food policy expert Marion Nestle discusses her new book Sugar Coated (co-authored with Lisa Sutherland, a former Kellogg vice president of nutrition). The book traces how cereal makers transformed a niche product into a breakfast staple through marketing, industry-funded research, lobbying, and regulatory outmaneuvering.
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Climate change a trigger, not the whole story: Himanshu Thakkar on the Rasuwa flood disaster

The devastating flood that swept through  Nepal 's Rasuwa district on August 26, 2026, was likely triggered by climate change , but the scale of the tragedy was determined by human decisions — including the unchecked proliferation of hydropower projects in a fragile Himalayan landscape, according to Himanshu Thakkar , coordinator of the South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers and People (SANDRP).
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Decade on, BRICS' New Development Bank 'still leaves' affected communities without redress

   On the eve of the 18th BRICS Summit, a new report has accused the New Development Bank (NDB) — the multilateral lender set up by Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa — of failing to deliver on its founding promise of people-centric, sustainable development, even as the harms from its projects mount and affected communities are left with no way to seek redress.
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Delhi CEO’s defence of SIR deletions challenged: Public Jan Sunwais, Form 8 restoration sought

A citizens’ audit of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in Y Block, Mangolpuri, has challenged the Delhi Chief Electoral Officer’s defence of deletions from the draft electoral roll, alleging that in four of six cited cases the official explanation rests on “an unrecorded, unnamed ‘local inquiry’ or oral statement” rather than documented evidence. The detailed response follows a four-hour public hearing on 5 September 2026 before a citizens’ jury chaired by Justice (Retd.) Madan B. Lokur, former Judge of the Supreme Court of India.
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