Feral dogs push Indian grey wolves, guardians of a Maharashtra grassland, towards extinction

The Kadbanwadi grassland, spread over 2,000 hectares in Indapur tehsil in Maharashtra's Pune dis trict, wears a different look depending on the season. It shimmers gold in summer and turns parakeet green during monsoon. The shepherd community here has coexisted with animals such as the Bengal fox, striped hyena, Brah miny kite, and the apex predator, Indian grey wolf, through generations.

Dalit Christians in Karnataka differ on how to identify themselves in caste survey

As the enumeration work to identify Scheduled Castes for internal reservation is under way in Karna-taka, the identification of Dalit Christians has emerged as a contentious issue.

Why India must get the Caste Census right

The Narendra Modi government's decision to include caste enumeration in the next Census is one that is bold, transformative and commendable. Counting caste is not capitulation to identity politics. It is a mirror to the lived realities of millions. It marks a vital step towards evidence-based policymaking to build a more just and inclusive India. A nation that refuses to see itself cannot hope to heal itself.

Why India must get the Caste Census right

The Narendra Modi government's decision to include caste enumeration in the next Census is one that is bold, transformative and commendable. Counting caste is not capitulation to identity politics. It is a mirror to the lived realities of millions. It marks a vital step towards evidence-based policymaking to build a more just and inclusive India. A nation that refuses to see itself cannot hope to heal itself.

Right to know

The Supreme Court of India order on May 9, setting aside the Delhi High Court or-der directing the Wikimedia Foundation to take down a page on its Wikipedia Internet encyclopaedia, is notable for several reasons. In October 2024, a single judge of the High Court had issued the interim order after Wikipedia users floated a new page detailing the defamation case and a discussion forum in which some users commented adversely on the single judge's order, construing these actions to be in contempt. After a Division Bench upheld the order, the Foundation moved the Court. Subsequently, the Bench of Justices Abhay S. Oka and Ujjal Bhuyan observed that "[e]very important issue needs to be vigorously debated by the people and the press, even if the issue of debate is sub judice before a court" and that the High Court had overreacted to adverse comments of its take-down order in the forum. The Bench's order was limited to the Foundation's appeal over the legality of the take-down order, following on from a similar one in April to set aside an order to remove allegedly defamatory edits on ANI's Wikipedia page. Yet the order is also clear that the right to know is a basic right under Articles 19(1)(a) and 21, casting the case against the Foundation in a light that may have eluded the High Court. While discussing the presumption of contempt, Justices Oka and Bhuyan noted that the right to know controls the people's ability to participate in public development and to access justice.

A fundamental reset to drive manufacturing growth

Global manufacturing and trade is shifting rapidly toward innovation-driven, medium-high- and high-tech products. It is driven by advanced research and development (R&D), technological sophistication, high skills and a complex network of supply chains. In addition, there are the current high tariffs introduced by the United States. It is likely to redefine the manufacturing sector. Irrespective of whether there are tariffs or not, the fundamentals need to be set right. This demands policies that address challenges squarely.

India has a challenge at hand. Realising the criticality of manufacturing in the economy, the country has been making consistent efforts since the economic reforms in 1991 together with renewed efforts using flagship programmes such as the National Manufacturing Competitiveness Programme (NMCP) in 2005 and Make in India in 2014. Multiple initiatives have provided impetus to the electronics, pharmaceuticals and automobile sectors.

The women who remain largely invisible

Across India and South Asia, women have long been at the forefront of movements resisting unjust development, extractivism, and climate degradation. They have led protests against destructive mining, dams, and infrastructure projects. Yet, when it comes to decision-making, these women are largely invisible.

Govt. data confirms massive undercount of pandemic deaths

In 2021, an analysis of excess deaths - the increase in the death tally over expected numbers based on previous years (2015-2019) shows that the number was nearly six times more than the reported COVID-19 death toll. This was the year when the delta variant of the SARS-COV-2 virus wreaked havoc across the country. Some States had a much higher multiple than the national average. For instance, the Gujarat government had officially reported only 5,812 COVID-19 deaths in 2021, but the excess deaths were 44 times this tally, the government data reveals. Similarly, the excess deaths in Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh were a multiple of 19.5 times more than the reported toll.

How is Kerala handling its waste problem?

What is the 'Vruthi campaign? How has waste increased in Kerala society? Is this campaign different from the Swachh Bharat Mission? Are decentralised waste management systems better than centralised ones?

Are artificial intelligence models susceptible to producing harmful content?

Advanced Al models that showcase unparalleled capabilities in natural language processing, problem-solving, and multimodal understanding have some inherent vulnerabilities that expose critical security risks. While these language models' strength lie in their adaptability and efficiency across diverse applications, those very same attributes can be manipulated.

No compromise if somebody hurts dignity of court, says Justice Gavai

Chief Justice of India-C designate Justice B.R. Gavai believes that trolls who scandalise the court on social media and resort to personal at-tacks against judges must be dealt with an iron hand.

'Indus Waters Treaty to be kept in abeyance as Pakistan resorted to cross-border terror'

India will keep the Indus Waters Treaty in abeyance as Pakistan had resorted to cross-border terrorism, a highly placed government official told The Hindu here on Sunday. Operation Sin-door, which targeted nine terror camps inside Pakis-tan, had created a "new normal" under which India will hit "harder, bigger, stronger" inside Pakistan if cross-border terror attacks continued.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang speaks to Ajit Doval, calls for a lasting ceasefire

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi spoke to India's National Security Adviser (NSA) Ajit Doval on Sun-day, and expressed hope that New Delhi and Islamabad would address their differences through dialogue and achieve a lasting ceasefire.

Total Fertility Rate in India remains at 2.0; Bihar records highest count, Bengal lowest

The Total Fertility Rate (TFR), the average number of children born to women over their lifetime, in the country has remained at 2.0 in 2021, the same as in 2020, shows the Sample Registration System (SRS) report for 2021 released by the Registrar-General of India (RGI) on May 7.

World's longest banana infructescence | found in the forests of Andamans

An infructescence of about 4.2 metres has been re-corded in a species of wild banana from Andaman and Nicobar Islands, making it the longest infructescence recorded in bananas across the world. The de-tails of the discovery were published in an international peer reviewed science journal Botany Letters earlier this year.

The importance of Small Savings Schemes

Small Savings Schemes, known as Post Office Savings Schemes, are a popular and useful means for people for channelising savings. Credit quality is top-notch as it is run by the government, and interest rates are competitive. Interest rates are fixed by the government every quarter e.g. the rates for the current quarter, April to June 2025, were announced on March 31. Today we will see, on what basis the rates are fixed by the government. 

Asteroid YR4 might miss earth; will it miss the moon, too?

Picture a space rock smashing into the moon. It sends splinters of moon rock flying into the dark void of space.

What would that spectacle look like?

Scientists used the ATLAS telescope in Rio Hurtado, Chile, to discover asteroid 2024 YR4 in December 2024 as a new entrant in the asteroid databases - and it made a splash. Since its discovery, it has kept planetary defence scientists on their toes because of the possibility that it could collide with the earth someday.