NEWS BRIEFINGS: LATEST DEVELOPMENTS IN INDIA

Rahul Gandhi, the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, accused India’s top election officials of collaborating in “vote theft” and warned that a future government would change the law to hold them accountable. Speaking in Parliament, he said, “We will change the law retrospectively, and we will come looking for you.”

People in Delhi and nearby areas are absorbing dangerous amounts of air pollution deep into their lungs every day, far beyond what Indian or global safety standards allow. A five-year study measured how much of this pollution actually settles inside the respiratory system, offering a clearer and more direct view of the damage being caused to people’s health.

The Ministry of Home Affairs has withdrawn all financial sanctioning powers from Ladakh’s local administration and elected councils, centralising them in Delhi. The move is likely to disrupt local decision-making and delay essential development in a region where planning and execution must match a narrow seasonal window.

The central government is weighing a proposal to require smartphone manufacturers to keep satellite-based location tracking permanently active on all devices sold in the country. This would allow law enforcement and investigative agencies to access our precise, real-time location data, a step no other country has taken so far.

Over the last five years, more than 6.5 million (65 lakh) children in India have dropped out of school, Minister of State for Women and Child Development Savitri Thakur revealed in Parliament. Among them, nearly 3 million (30 lakh) are adolescent girls. The numbers point to a large-scale rupture in India’s promise of universal education, and also to structural gaps in the way schooling is planned, supported and delivered, especially for children from marginalised families.

A group of former judges and senior advocates have denounced recent comments made by a Supreme Court bench comprising Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi during a Supreme Court hearing on Rohingya refugees, calling the remarks “unconscionable” and contrary to constitutional values. In a public letter, the signatories said the comments dehumanised vulnerable refugees and undermined the moral authority of the judiciary.

Up to 10 million people in India need palliative care, yet fewer than 4% receive it, according to a new study. As a result, people with chronic and life-limiting illnesses such as cancer, heart disease or advanced neurological conditions are often left without the support they need to live their final days with comfort and dignity. They endure unmanaged pain and deep emotional distress.

In its 2025 Data Adequacy Assessment, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) gave India a ‘C’ grade for the quality of its national accounts and government finance data. In plain terms, that means the data has enough problems to make economic analysis tricky and sometimes unreliable.

Officials in Bhutan appear to have cultivated a habit of avoiding the media and withholding information, leaving journalists with few avenues for access. The resulting silence is straining an already fragile media landscape, pushing it closer to collapse.

As pollution levels in Delhi trigger emergency measures once again this December, the public is told the usual causes: crop burning, vehicle emissions and weather. But a far more persistent source of pollution continues throughout the year, worsens the crisis each winter, and is enabled by government policy. It comes from coal power plants operating within 300 kilometres of the city.

Delhi recorded the highest air pollution levels among global cities on December 1, with an Air Quality Index of 244. Other cities across India and Asia also reported hazardous conditions, marking a continued public health risk across the region.

The government has announced a sweeping rule that will affect how you use apps like WhatsApp, Telegram, Signal and others. These apps will stop working the moment you remove your SIM card, switch phones, or try to access them on a second device without the SIM. The rule gives the government the power to link all your communication activity to your physical identity and location at all times, with no clear safeguards.

India outlawed bonded labour nearly 50 years ago, but millions remain trapped in exploitative working conditions, according to a new report by a workers’ rights network, which has accused the government of neglecting its legal duty to enforce protections and support victims.

Industrial units with fewer than 300 workers in India no longer need government approval for layoffs under the new labour codes. This change removes key legal protections for most employees, shifting the law’s focus away from security and collective rights in the workplace.

Two Indian entities have been named in Reporters Without Borders’ 2025 “Press Freedom Predators” list, a roster of 34 governments, officials and organisations accused of systematically attacking journalists and the right to independent information.

A new study by medical researchers in the United States has revealed a serious limitation in how doctors currently try to predict and prevent heart attacks. It shows that the tools most commonly used by physicians, namely the ASCVD risk score and the newer PREVENT calculator, are failing to identify a large number of individuals who are actually at risk.

A major new study has found that even light smoking dramatically increases the risk of serious heart conditions and early death, with women facing higher risk than men. The study involves decades of data from more than 320,000 (3.2 lakh) adults and offers the clearest long-term evidence to date that there is no safe level of tobacco use.

A decade after the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015 came into force, a new study shows that its pledges of timely, protective and rehabilitative justice for children have failed in practice. The breakdown has left thousands of children stuck in drawn-out legal processes, exposed to continued harm.

The Centre has proposed to bring Chandigarh under Article 240 and appoint a separate Lieutenant Governor, giving itself full control over a city built as Punjab’s capital. The President could make laws without consulting Parliament or the state, effectively cutting Punjab out. This calculated political move rewrites the existing understanding and serves the ruling party’s interests by sidelining Punjab.

At the 70^th birth anniversary of Bhutan’s Fourth King Jigme Singye Wangchuck, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a Ngultrum 40-billion (roughly $450 million) line of credit for infrastructure and energy development. While the move signalled strong bilateral ties, an uncomfortable truth lies behind the public warmth. Bhutan’s dependence on Indian-funded hydropower has locked it into an escalating debt trap.

This piece is not an academic or a journalistic write-up; it is my heartfelt narrative for all the students who have internalised fear. I write this not because I want to preach, but because I feel responsible for giving you a kind and better world. It is challenging for me to recount a small (or rather, huge) incident from my life, and that too publicly, but I want all students to read and engage with my lived experience, even if they disagree.

The Supreme Court has ruled that courts cannot impose deadlines on the President or State Governors for granting or withholding assent to bills passed by legislatures. Nor can courts treat inaction as assent. A Constitution Bench held that such directions, issued by a two-judge Bench in April 2024, are unconstitutional and violate the separation of powers between the judiciary and executive.

A new international study reveals that antimicrobial resistance (AMR), which is the ability of bacteria and other microbes to resist the effects of medicines that once killed them, is now one of the most pressing threats to public health worldwide, and this new study places India at the heart of that emergency.

The Supreme Court has revived a mechanism that allows construction or industrial projects to obtain environmental clearance even after they have already started or expanded without approval. This means projects that violated environmental rules can now continue operations without facing legal action or being dismantled.

According to report published in CNN, Delhi University cancelled a long-running seminar on democracy on the same day it issued a directive urging staff and students to attend a summit on cow welfare. The overlap sparked anger among professors and students who said it showed pressure from the government to push Hindu nationalist interests inside public universities.

A new nationwide health report has revealed something most people don’t see coming. The body begins to show early signs of diabetes long before sugar levels rise. These warning signs are not picked up during routine checks. They lie in fat imbalances in the blood, especially in younger adults who don’t feel sick and may not look unhealthy.

The Indian workplace is undergoing a major psychological and structural reset, and artificial intelligence is at the heart of it. A new study shows that employees now use AI not only to work more efficiently, but also as a daily companion, career guide and thinking partner. This is especially true for younger professionals who are redefining what success, identity and purpose mean in their careers.

A major research project in the U.K. is studying why serious mental illnesses like schizophrenia and bipolar disorder happen, so that new, safer treatments can be developed. It involves collecting detailed data from 600 people and sharing it with scientists around the world to change how these illnesses are understood, diagnosed and treated.

During a hearing unrelated to pollution in Delhi, a Supreme Court judge urged lawyers to avoid attending court in person, warning that the air was so toxic that “even masks are not enough.” The observation came as air quality in Delhi-NCR entered the “severe” category yet again, and at a time when the government is already under scrutiny in a separate case concerning its failure to control pollution.

Over the past two decades, a small group of people, including in India, have taken a much larger share of global wealth, while most of the world has seen little gain, according to a new report that links this concentration of wealth not only to personal effort but also to government policies that boosted financial markets at the expense of public resources.