The Union government on Friday told the Supreme Court that it would bring back some persons who were “pushed” into Bangladesh to verify their citizenship, Live Law reported.

The bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vipul Pancholi was hearing the government’s petition challenging a Calcutta High Court order that set aside the Centre’s decision to deport six persons, including a pregnant woman from West Bengal and her family, to Bangladesh.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Union government, told the court that the Centre would bring back the persons “keeping in view the peculiar facts and circumstances of the case”.

However, he added that this should not be considered as a precedent to be followed in other similar cases, Live Law reported.

Following Mehta’s submission, the court said: “Their continuation in India will depend on the outcome of such enquiry.”

The solicitor general was quoted as stating that it would take about eight to ten days to bring the persons back to India.

The case

In June 2025, Sunali Khatun, her husband and their son, as well as another woman Sweety Bibi and her two sons had been taken into custody in Delhi and sent to Bangladesh. The six persons maintain that they hail from West Bengal’s Birbhum district.

In September, the Calcutta High Court set aside the deportation order against all six of them. It had directed that they be brought back to West Bengal within four weeks. The High Court had passed the order on a petition filed by Khatun’s father Bhodu Sekh.

Two days before the four-week period ended, the Union government in October challenged the order before the Supreme Court. The government and the Delhi Police questioned whether the High Court had the jurisdiction to hear the case.

The Supreme Court was hearing this challenge on Friday.

However, in December, Khatun and her son Sabir were brought back to India on humanitarian grounds. The Union government had said that it would do so “without prejudice” to New Delhi’s “contentions on merits and our right to put them under surveillance”.

This had come after the Supreme Court, taking note of Khatun’s advanced pregnancy, asked the Union government whether the mother and the son could return to India.

Since the terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pahalgam in April 2025, the police in several states ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party have been detaining Bengali-speaking persons – mostly Muslims – and asking them to prove that they are Indian citizens.

Several persons have been forced into Bangladesh after they allegedly could not prove their Indian citizenship. In some cases, persons who were mistakenly sent to Bangladesh returned to the country after state authorities in India proved that they were Indians.

Scroll has also reported on several cases of persons who were forced into Bangladesh being brought back to India, as the authorities had failed to follow the process laid down by the Union home ministry for such deportations.

Edited by Nachiket Deuskar.

Also read:

• Bangladeshi or Indian? Investigating Modi government’s crackdown on ‘illegal immigrants’

• Pregnant woman from Bengal forced into Bangladesh. Family has land records from five generations ago

A group of retired civil servants on Friday expressed concerns about the allegedly disparaging remarks made by Chief Justice Surya Kant recently while hearing an appeal against the National Green Tribunal’s order upholding the environmental clearances for the Pipavav port expansion project in Gujarat.

On May 11, a bench headed by the chief justice had refused to entertain the petition challenging the tribunal’s November decision to dismiss an appeal seeking the quashing of the clearances.

According to the Constitutional Conduct Group, the chief justice told the environmental litigants during the hearing: “Show us one project in India where environmental activists say we welcome this project, the country is progressing well, we welcome this project”.

The bench alleged such petitions were filed “only to stall development projects”, The Indian Express reported.

The court further clarified that it has always been concerned about environmental issues and are critical of anything that affects the environment, the newspaper reported.

The chief justice’s remarks “suggesting that these activists obstruct ‘development’, reveal a bias and prejudice that is alarming, coming from the highest judicial authority of the country, an authority whose mandate is to approach every issue without pre-conceived notions and decide each case on merits”, the group of former bureaucrats said in an open letter.

The group said that even if the remarks were verbal observations, they get widely reported and “may shape decisions that weaken environmental and conservation safeguards in the country, and influence lower courts to also adopt similar attitudes”.

“Such statements can foster fear and silence citizens’ voices of dissent, discouraging them from questioning ecological damage, and the potential adverse impact on communities and public health,” the group said. “Such statements would create tendencies fundamentally antithetical to democracy and an atmosphere of fear in which flaws, violations, or adverse consequences linked to projects remain unreported or concealed.”

The former bureaucrats said that India’s environmental integrity had been shaped and strengthened by environmental movements. Conservation frameworks and environmental safeguards of “polluter pays”, “precautionary principle”, “inter-generational equity” were also the outcome of “judicial activism of the Supreme Court”, they added.

The top court has been the “last hope of environmentally conscious citizens”, who are therefore dismayed by the remarks made by the chief justice aimed at citizens fighting for conservation, the group said.

“We hope the [chief justice] will encourage rather than discourage citizens from raising their voice for the ecological integrity of our country, and recognise that this is fundamental to our country’s economic security and growth,” they added.

The 71 signatories to the letter include Punjab’s former Director General of Police Julio Ribeiro, Delhi’s former Lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung, former Indian ambassador Gautam Mukhopadhaya, and former Indian Administrative Service officer and activist Harsh Mander.

Written by Nachiket Deuskar. Edited by Sara Varghese.

In April, a video of Indian textile workers wearing head-mounted cameras went viral. Scroll identified them as workers employed at the Gurugram factory of Pearl Global Industries.

They were asked to wear the devices during their shifts and told that the cameras would capture their activities at work. Their consent was not sought for the exercise, they said..

Scroll found that cameras of this sort are offered by a startup founded by two teenagers in Maharashtra that is collecting first-person footage of factory workers to sell to global tech firms, which can then use it to train robots.

How do these videos help build robots? And how does such data collection align with India’s data protection law?

Producer: Raghav Kakkar
Camera: Priyali Dhingra, Raghav Kakkar
Editor: Hyder Habib

The Delhi High Court granted a three-day interim bail to activist Umar Khalid in the 2020 Delhi riots conspiracy case. A division bench ordered Khalid to be released from June 1 to June 3.

He had sought interim bail for 15 days to attend the Chehlum ritual marking 40 days since his uncle’s death, and to take care of his mother, who is scheduled to undergo surgery on June 2. A Delhi court had on Tuesday rejected his plea, after which he approached the High Court. Read on.

The Delhi High Court sought the response of journalist Saurav Das and Aam Aadmi Party leader Gopal Rai on a criminal contempt of court petition filed against them for allegedly running a coordinated online campaign to target Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma. However, the bench did not issue notices to AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal and party leader Saurabh Bharadwaj, who are also named in the matter, considering that they are already facing suo motu contempt proceedings.

Das said that he stands by his reporting, adding that it was based entirely on documentary material including responses to Right to Information applications by the Ministry of Law and Justice, the judge’s own judicial orders, publicly available records and statements made by a Supreme Court judge. “Questions cannot be contempt,” the journalist said. Read on.

The Supreme Court recalled its order barring three academics from all government projects for drafting a chapter about “corruption in the judiciary” in a now-withdrawn textbook. The bench also modified its observations made in the March 11 order.

The court said that while it stands by its position that parts of the textbook were “wholly undesirable and unnecessary”, it was withdrawing its directions after receiving an explanation from the three academics.

The chapter in question was part of a Class 8 social science textbook published by the National Council of Educational Research and Training that had listed “corruption at various levels of the judiciary” among the challenges that the judicial system faces. Read on.

Two Indian mountaineers who summited Mount Everest have died while descending the peak. Arun Kumar Tiwari and Sandeep Are died of exhaustion in separate incidents while coming down the world’s tallest mountain, according to Rishi Bhandari, the secretary general of the Expedition Operators Association of Nepal.

Sandeep Are climbed Everest on Wednesday and died on Thursday. Tiwari summited the mountain on Thursday. However, it was unclear when he died. Are was among 274 climbers who summited the mountain, setting a new record for the highest number of ascents ever recorded in a day. Read on.

Garga Chatterjee, the chief of pro-Bengali advocacy group Bangla Pokkho, was granted bail by a court in the main suo-motu case about allegedly spreading misinformation about Electronic Voting Machines ahead of the West Bengal Assembly elections.

He had been arrested on May 12 by the Kolkata Police’s cybercrime division following a complaint by an Election Commission official. Read on.

The Reserve Bank of India’s board approved a transfer of Rs 2.8 lakh crore as surplus to the Union government for the financial year 2025-’26. This was the central bank’s highest annual surplus, or dividend transferred to the government.

Every year, the central bank pays a dividend to the government to help with the finances from its surplus or profit. It serves as a key source of revenue for the government. Read on.

If you haven’t already, sign up for our Daily Brief newsletter.

Two Indian mountaineers who summited Mount Everest have died while descending, PTI quoted a Nepali official as saying on Friday.

Arun Kumar Tiwari and Sandeep Are died of exhaustion in separate incidents while coming down the 8,848.8-metre peak, Rishi Bhandari, the secretary general of the Expedition Operators Association of Nepal told the news agency.

While Are climbed Everest on Wednesday and died on Thursday, Tiwari summited the peak on Thursday. However, it was unclear when he died.

The climbing Sherpa guides “worked really hard” to save Are’s life but unfortunately were not able to, Bhandari was quoted as saying.

While describing Tiwari’s death, the official said: “He had two experienced climbing Sherpa guides and they were trying to descend together, but he became exhausted and extremely tired at the Hillary Step, and unfortunately our guides were not able to bring him back.”

Nivesh Karki, director at Pioneer Adventures, told AFP that efforts were being made to retrieve both bodies.

On Wednesday, Are was one of 274 climbers who summited the world’s tallest mountain, setting a new record for the highest number of ascents ever recorded in a day.

View this post on Instagram

Two other Indians, Tulasi Reddi Palpunoori and Ajay Pal Singh Dhaliwal, also made the ascent, PTI reported.

Edited by Nachiket Deuskar.

Also read: Why do people risk their lives climbing the Everest? I asked some of them in the ‘death zone’

Bangla Pokkho chief Garga Chatterjee was on Friday granted bail by a court in the main suo-motu case filed by the Kolkata Police’s cybercrime division, Kausik Maiti, a member of the pro-Bengali advocacy group, told Scroll.

Chatterjee had been arrested on May 12 for allegedly spreading misinformation about Electronic Voting Machines ahead of the West Bengal Assembly elections. He was arrested by the cybercrime division following a complaint by an Election Commission official.

While one first information report in the matter was registered against him at the Maidan Police Station based on the polling official’s complaint, another was filed by the cybercrime division after it took suo motu cognisance of the matter.

He had previously received bail in the other matters but had remained in custody in the main suo-motu case. He was granted bail in this on Friday.

Chatterjee is likely to be released on Friday or Saturday, Maiti said.

At the time of his arrest, Kolkata Police Commissioner Ajay Nand had said that Chatterjee had posted on social media about alleged EVM tampering and malpractices in the election process. “This caused different perceptions among political parties and also created confusion,” ANI had quoted the police chief as having said.

The police had sent notices twice to Chatterjee, asking him to appear for questioning, the news agency quoted Nand as saying. However, he did not appear before the authorities, due to which he was arrested, according to the police commissioner.

The Bangla Pokkho chief had raised questions about alleged EVM malfunctions on April 23, the day of the first phase of the election, PTI had quoted an unidentified police official as saying. On that day, voting had started late at several booths because of technical glitches.

On May 4, the day of counting of votes, Chatterjee again criticised the Election Commission on social media, accusing the poll panel of carrying out a “secret plan”, the news agency quoted the official as saying.

The Bharatiya Janata Party won the West Bengal elections on May 4, ending the Trinamool Congress’ 15-year tenure in the state.

Written by Nachiket Deuskar. Edited by Sara Varghese.

The Supreme Court on Friday recalled its order barring three academics from all government projects for drafting a chapter about “corruption in the judiciary” in a now-withdrawn textbook, Live Law reported.

A bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vipul Pancholi modified the “harsh” observations made in the March 11 order, The Hindu reported.

The bench said that while it stands by its position “that the curriculum contained in the Class 8 National Council of Educational Research and Training textbook was wholly undesirable and unnecessary”, it was withdrawing its directions after receiving an explanation from the three academics, Bar and Bench reported.

The chapter in question was part of a Class 8 social science textbook published by the National Council of Educational Research and Training. The chapter had listed “corruption at various levels of the judiciary” among the challenges that the judicial system faces. It was part of a textbook titled “Exploring Society: India and Beyond”.

The educational body on March 10 apologised for the chapter, and said that the entire book had been withdrawn. The apology came two weeks after the court took suo motu cognisance of the matter and banned the publication and re-printing of the textbook.

On Friday, the court expressed satisfaction that there was no malice on part of Michel Danino, Suparna Diwakar and Alok Prasanna Kumar in preparing the chapter, Live Law reported.

It clarified that the Union government and the states are allowed to take independent decisions on associating with the three academics for future projects.

During the hearing, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta submitted that the Union government had decided not to associate with the persons in future works, Live Law reported.

The court was hearing a plea moved by the three academics who explained that no individual had a sole say in the matter and that it was a collective process, The Hindu reported.

On March 11, the court had held that the three academics either did not have “reasonable knowledge about the Indian judiciary” or that they knowingly misrepresented facts “in order to project a negative image of the Indian judiciary”.

On Friday, the court expunged the observations, Live Law reported.

Edited by Nachiket Deuskar.

The Delhi High Court on Friday issued notices to journalist Saurav Das and Aam Aadmi Party leader Gopal Rai on a criminal contempt of court petition filed against them for allegedly running a coordinated campaign to target Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma, Bar and Bench reported.

However, the division bench of Justices Navin Chawla and Ravinder Dudeja did not issue notices to AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal and party leader Saurabh Bharadwaj, who were the two other respondents in the matter, as they are already facing contempt proceedings that the High Court had initiated suo motu in the matter.

The matter initiated by the court and the petition against Das and Rai filed by a lawyer will be heard together.

The lawyer filed the petition after receiving consent from the Additional Standing Counsel (Criminal) Sanjeev Bhandari of the Bharatiya Janata Party government in Delhi.

The petitioner argued that Das, Rai, Kejriwal and Bharadwaj initiated an allegedly concerted and orchestrated campaign on social media platform X by publishing and amplifying posts that made “serious, unfounded and scandalous allegations” against Sharma, Bar and Bench reported.

The posts alleged “a supposed conflict of interest, bias and impropriety, based on misleading assertions relating to the professional engagements” of the family members of the judge, the plea was quoted as having argued.

The allegedly coordinated nature of the posts, their timing while judicial proceedings were underway and the nature of the allegations demonstrate a calculated attempt to lower the authority of the court and interfere with the due course of justice, Bar and Bench quoted the petitioner as having argued.

On Friday, Das said that he stands by his reporting. “The report was based entirely on documentary material: RTI [Right to Information] data furnished by the Ministry of Law and Justice, the judge’s own judicial orders in criminal revision petitions, publicly available records and statements made by a sitting Hon’ble Judge of the Supreme Court himself,” he said.

The journalist said that “not a single fact reported by me has been rebutted either by the judge concerned or by the Central Bureau of Investigation”.

“Journalism that seeks to uncover these uncomfortable facts in the largest of public interests is part of the constitutional duty of the fourth pillar,” Das said. “Questions cannot be contempt.”

The contentions

On May 14, Sharma initiated contempt proceedings against Kejriwal and other AAP leaders for allegedly defaming and vilifying her. The judge had also recused herself from hearing the CBI’s revision petition against their discharge in the liquor policy case.

The developments came after Kejriwal and others in April boycotted the proceedings before Sharma in the petition filed by the CBI against the trial court order discharging them and several others in the case.

On April 20, Sharma rejected a petition filed by the AAP leaders demanding that she recuse herself from hearing the case. Their petition raised concerns about “perceived ideological proximity”, referring to her attending an event of an organisation linked to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh.

The RSS is the parent organisation of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party.

Kejriwal also argued before Sharma that she had repeatedly passed orders in favour of the CBI and the Enforcement Directorate in the liquor policy case.

Kejriwal and AAP leader Manish Sisodia had also noted that Sharma’s son and daughter have been empanelled as counsels by the Union government. The former Delhi chief minister highlighted that they are both allocated cases by Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, who is appearing before the High Court representing the CBI.

An empanelled counsel is a lawyer selected by a government body, public sector undertaking or organisation to represent their legal cases for a designated period.

On February 27, a trial court discharged Kejriwal, Sisodia and 21 others accused by the CBI in the case. There was no overarching conspiracy or criminal intent in the excise policy, the court had ruled.

The court had also criticised the central agency for implicating Kejriwal without any cogent material. It said that the chargesheet had several gaps not supported by any witnesses or statements.

However, the High Court on March 9 stayed the adverse observations made by the trial court about the CBI. The matter was heard by Sharma, who prima facie observed that the trial court’s findings were erroneous.

Edited by Sara Varghese.

The Delhi High Court on Friday granted interim bail for three days to activist Umar Khalid in the 2020 Delhi riots conspiracy case, Live Law reported.

A division bench of Justices Prathiba Singh and Madhu Jain ordered Khalid to be released from June 1 to June 3.

The former Jawaharlal Nehru University student had sought interim bail for 15 days to attend the Chehlum ritual marking 40 days since his uncle’s death, and to take care of his mother, who is scheduled to undergo surgery on June 2. A Delhi court had on Tuesday rejected his plea, after which he approached the High Court.

Khalid’s lawyer Trideep Pais on Friday told the High Court that the activist had been granted interim bail in December as well so that he could attend his sister’s wedding, Live Law reported. Khalid had also been given interim bail for short durations in 2022 and 2024.

Additional Solicitor General SV Raju, representing the Delhi Police, contended that the activist’s mother only needs to undergo a minor surgery, and that Khalid’s sisters can look after her. He also told the High Court that Khalid could visit her and return in a day, accompanied by a police escort.

However, the High Court said that it would grant him interim bail, taking an “empathetic view” of the matter, so that he could spend time with his mother, Live Law reported.

The bench directed that Khalid must only have one mobile phone and must keep in continuous touch with the investigating officer.

On Tuesday, Additional Sessions Judge Sameer Bajpai of the Karkardooma Courts said that merely because Khalid had been granted interim bail earlier and had not violated bail conditions, it did not mean that bail should be granted every time it was sought.

The judge questioned why the activist had not sought bail immediately after his uncle’s death, and only applied later for the Chehlum ritual, Live Law reported.

On January 5, the Supreme Court denied bail to Khalid and former Jawaharlal Nehru University student Sharjeel Imam in the case. A bench of Justices Aravind Kumar and NV Anjaria had, however, granted bail to Gulfisha Fatima, Meeran Haider, Shifa-ur-Rehman, Shadab Ahmed and Muhammad Saleem Khan.

On Monday, a Supreme Court bench of Justices BV Nagarathna and Ujjal Bhuyan criticised the January order denying bail to them, saying that “bail is the rule and jail is an exception” even in prosecutions under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act.

Delhi violence

Communal violence broke out in North East Delhi in February 2020 between supporters of the contentious Citizenship Amendment Act and those opposing it. The riots had left 53 dead and hundreds injured. Most of those killed were Muslims.

The police have claimed that the violence was part of a larger conspiracy to defame the Narendra Modi government and was planned by those who organised the protests against the amended Citizenship Act.

Khalid is facing charges under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, the Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act, the Arms Act and sections of the Indian Penal Code. He was arrested on September 13, 2020, and has spent over five years in jail.

Edited by Leah Thomas.

Arjumand Gulzar alias Burhan Hamza, a designated terrorist who was accused of having orchestrated the terror attack at Jammu and Kashmir’s Pulwama in 2019, has been shot dead by unidentified gunmen in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, PTI quoted officials as saying on Thursday.

The officials said that Hamza was allegedly ambushed in Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.

He was airlifted to the Combined Military Hospital in Rawalpindi after being critically injured. The officials said that he succumbed to his injuries there.

They added that the gunmen reportedly managed to escape before security forces could intervene.

On February 14, 2019, an explosive-laden car driven by a suicide bomber rammed into a bus carrying CRPF personnel, killing 40 of them in Pulwama. Pakistani terror outfit Jaish-e-Mohammed had claimed responsibility for the attack.

Hamza had been designated a terrorist by the Union Ministry of Home Affairs in 2022 under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act after a National Investigation Agency probe into the attack.

Hamza, originally from Khar in Pulwama district, was earlier linked to militant group Al Badr, PTI reported. He moved to another militant group Al Baraq. He also allegedly had close ties to Pakistan’s intelligence agency Inter-Services Intelligence.

Edited by Neerad Pandharipande.

The West Bengal Police on Thursday said that a first information report has been filed against actors Parambrata Chattopadhyay and Swastika Mukherjee for making allegedly provocative remarks on social media during violence after the 2021 Assembly elections in the state, PTI reported.

The FIR was based on a complaint registered at the Gariahat Police Station by an advocate, Joydeep Sen, who claimed that the actors had made remarks on social media that could have incited political violence in the charged atmosphere after the Assembly election results in May 2021.

In May 2021, the TMC had won 215 seats and the Bharatiya Janata Party 77 in the Assembly elections. There were allegations of widespread post-poll violence after the results were declared and the TMC returned to power for the third time in a row.

At the time, the Calcutta High Court had ordered a Central Bureau of Investigation probe into the violence. A Special Investigation Team was also set up.

In his complaint, Sen claimed that after the TMC crossed the majority mark, Parambrata had posted on May 2, 2021: “Let today be declared World Thrashing Day”, the news agency reported. Responding to the post, Swastika had allegedly said: “Hahaha, let it be”.

The complaint alleged that such remarks contributed to an atmosphere of political hostility and violence during the post-poll unrest in West Bengal.

“The content of the afore-printed tweet of Parambrata Chatterjee on May 2, 2021 on the face of it appears to abate, encourage, incite and instigate large scale violence at such time when violence against BJP workers had already started to circulate,” the Hindustan Times quoted the complaint as saying.

It added: “It appears that another film actress namely Swastika Mukherjee had endorsed such instigation and abatement of organised violence against BJP workers and supporters at large.”

Sen also referred to the killing of BJP worker Abhijit Sarkar in Beliaghata hours after Parambrata’s post, alleging that comments of this nature encouraged political violence, PTI reported.

He further referred to several incidents of alleged attacks, killings, arson and assault on BJP workers in the state at the time.

An unidentified police officer told the news agency that a complaint had been received in the matter and an FIR was registered.

In this year’s Assembly election, the BJP won 207 seats in the Assembly, ending the TMC’s 15-year rule in the state.

The Mamata Banerjee-led party secured 80 constituencies.

This year too, widespread political violence had been reported in the state after the results. Several instances of alleged communal intimidation and vandalism were also reported across the state.

Edited by Neerad Pandharipande.

The new Bharatiya Janata Party government in West Bengal announced on Monday that it would scrap the state’s list of Other Backward Classes and reduce the OBC reservations of jobs in educational institutions and government jobs from 17% to 7%. The decision was made in keeping with a Calcutta High Court judgement from May 2024, minister Agnimitra Paul said at a news conference.

The move in effect reverts the state’s list of OBCs to its composition in 2010, nullifying the OBC status of as many as 76 caste groups. Most of those adversely affected by this development are Muslims.

Monday’s announcement came days after the state government said it would re-verify about 48 lakh OBC certificates issued in the 15 years during which the Trinamool Congress was in power. The two decisions dismantle OBC reservations as Bengal has known them in recent years.

This is in line with one of the BJP’s long-held criticisms of former chief minister Mamata Banerjee. The Hindutva party alleges that Banerjee’s OBC reservation policy was aimed at what it calls the appeasement of Muslims, and not the upliftment of genuinely backward groups.

But Bengali Muslim academics worry that the sweeping changes will undo the little upward mobility that their otherwise marginalised community has experienced of late.

A brief history

The trajectory of OBC politics in Bengal differs dramatically from the Hindi belt. While OBC groups in those parts had become entitled to a 27% quota in government jobs after 1990, the eastern state had capped reservations for them at just 7% till as late as 2010.

The Left government, which ruled Bengal between 1977 and 2011, had granted OBC status to only 66 castes even as the lists of such castes in other states swelled. The number of Muslim castes among those that Kolkata recognised as backward was merely 12.

Critics put this down to the Left’s historical aversion to caste politics and its avowed commitment to class-based mobilisation.

However, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, the last communist to serve as the chief minister of Bengal, tried to change this, albeit belatedly. Faced with rising anti-incumbency, particularly among Muslims who made up about a fourth of the state’s population then, Bhattacharjee revised his OBC reservation policy.

In a span of a few months, his government added dozens of new castes to Bengal’s OBC list and increased the quota to 17%. Of this, 10% was earmarked for the “Most Backward” caste groups. Muslims constituted the bulk of this category, which was christened OBC-A in bureaucratic parlance. The remaining 7% of the quota came to be known as OBC-B.

But the last-minute move failed to stop Mamata Banerjee from unseating the Left and becoming chief minister in the 2011 Assembly elections. Though she differed with the Left on most issues, her government continued with the same OBC reservation policy and recognised more Muslim castes as backward. In fact, the Trinamool would often boast that it had granted OBC status to over 90% of the state’s Muslims.

More SIRs to come

This markedly Muslim tilt in Bengal’s OBC politics is what the BJP takes exception to.

“Those who are actually OBCs did not get any benefit,” alleged Debjit Sarkar, the party’s chief spokesperson in the state. “Every aspect of governance in Bengal needs an SIR [special intensive revision]. Everything needs to be investigated deeply.”

Sarkar echoed what Agnimitra Paul, Bengal’s new minister for women and child development and social welfare, had told reporters on Monday. “We will set up a new inquiry,” she had promised.

The minister was presumably referring to fresh surveys that the West Bengal Commission for Backward Classes will conduct to identify backward caste groups. In May 2024, when the Calcutta High Court had first scrapped the changes made to the state’s OBC list since 2010, it was this body that had come under the spotlight.

“The commission has been reduced to a handmaiden or a compulsively obedient pet,” the court had observed then. “It appears that the primary and sole consideration for the commission had been to make religion-specific recommendations.”

In response to the High Court scrapping the additions to the OBC list, the Trinamool government revised its reservation policy and tilted the balance away from Muslims. While 118 Muslim castes used to be recognised as OBCs before the judgement, only 80 made it to the revised OBC list after the court ruling.

“The Muslim community had cursed us a lot for making those changes,” said a Trinamool leader who was involved in the revision process at the time.

Social justice, Hindutva-style

Bengali Muslim academics argue that it is not the changes in themselves, but the manner in which they were made that created room for controversy.

“Neither the Left nor the Trinamool made any serious efforts to study the status of lower-caste Muslims,” contended Abdul Matin, a political scientist at the Jadavpur University in Kolkata. “They just rushed to include some castes in the OBC list whenever it was politically expedient for them to do so.”

With the BJP holding the reins of power in the state now, these academics fear that Bengali Muslims stand to lose the benefits that have accrued to them through OBC reservations.

“This is what the backward classes have been demanding from us,” Sarkar, the BJP spokesperson, claimed. “They tell us that the wrong people have cornered all the benefits. There was no such thing as social justice in Bengal so far. But we will implement the Constitution now.”

Adil Hossain, an anthropologist at the Azim Premji University in Bengaluru, was of the view that those who had already availed of the OBC quota would not be affected. The 2024 High Court judgement, he pointed out, had clearly stated that the services of existing beneficiaries “cannot be terminated and the benefits derived cannot be revoked”.

Hossain, who hails from Uttar Dinajpur district and frequently writes about the marginalisation of Bengali Muslims, was more concerned about the political changes that he expects in the state.

The Left and the Trinamool never approached the issue of backwardness among Muslims from the prism of social justice, said Hossain. “Hindutva forces can easily pit Hindu OBCs against Muslim OBCs here,” he added. “They can ask, ‘Since caste exists only among Hindus, why should Muslims get reservations?’ They are experts at this sort of identity politics.”

The Union home ministry has decided to continue deploying 500 companies of Central Armed Police Forces in West Bengal till June 20 at the request of the state government, PTI reported.

A company of the Central Armed Police Forces has about 100 to 150 personnel.

The West Bengal government had sought that the central forces’ deployment should be continued till the end of October for post-election duties, a communication from the home ministry stated.

A communication addressed to the West Bengal chief secretary, home secretary and director general of police said that 200 companies of the Central Reserve Police Force, 150 of the Border Security Force and 50 each of the Central Industrial Security Force, Indo-Tibetan Border Police and Sashastra Seema Bal will remain deployed in the state till June 20, PTI reported.

The forces were being retained mainly to assist the police in maintaining law and order in sensitive areas after the Assembly elections, the news agency quoted an unidentified state government official as saying.

“The deployment is aimed at ensuring peace and preventing any untoward incidents in vulnerable areas,” the official said, according to PTI. “Coordination between the state police and CAPFs is continuing.”

The Bharatiya Janata Party had won the West Bengal elections on May 4, ending the Trinamool Congress’ 15-year rule in the state. The BJP won 207 seats, while the TMC secured 80 constituencies.

Ahead of the elections, the Election Commission had deployed 2.4 lakh Central Armed Police Forces personnel in the state. On April 27, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said that the Central Armed Police Forces would remain deployed in West Bengal for at least 60 days after the elections.

Despite the deployment, widespread political violence had been reported in the state after the results, including the killing of Chandranath Rath, an aide to West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari.

Several instances of alleged communal intimidation and vandalism were also reported across the state.

Amid the violence, the TMC had repeatedly alleged that the central forces deployed in the state had been instructed to “stand down and let [the violence] happen”.

Petitions were also filed in the Calcutta High Court alleging post-poll violence in the state.

Edited by Neerad Pandharipande.

Agricultural Minister Shivaraj Singh Chouhan recently announced that he would introduce a new Seeds Bill in the next session of Parliament replacing the vintage Seeds Act, 1966 enacted during the Green Revolution. The new law is aimed at regulating the quality of seeds being made available to Indian farmers and vests significant powers in the Union Government to regulate the seed industry and by implication, agriculture across the country.

A draft of the bill was made available in November for public consultations but without a white paper explaining the government’s rationale for the bill and its policy objectives. From statements made by the Minister, the primary aim of the bill is to tackle the flood of complaints from farmers about the poor quality of seeds being sold to them.

The private seed industry has largely supported the bill on the grounds that it will improve “ease of doing” business. On the other hand, some farmer groups and activists have criticised the bill on the grounds that it will consolidate corporate control over the trade of seeds, adversely affect crop biodiversity and traditional farming practices, including community seed banks.

A more fundamental question, which has received little attention, is whether Parliament has the legislative competence under the Constitution to enact the seeds law in the first place. This is an important question to ask since “agriculture” falls within the ambit of the State List laid down in the Seventh Schedule to the Constitution.

As per the Constitution, Parliament can only enact laws on the Union List or the Concurrent List in the Seventh Schedule, while only states can enact laws in relation to the State List. This question assumes all the more significance given the history of the Indian legal regime governing the seed industry.

When states took the initiative

The first attempt to enact a seeds law in India dates back to colonial rule. The Second World War had disrupted the import of seeds for “European Vegetables” and the colonial government was considering proposals to setup a domestic vegetable seed industry in Quetta and Kashmir to cater to the needs of vegetable farmers in British India.

At a conference in 1943, the erstwhile Imperial Council of Agricultural Research had proposed the enactment of new law to regulate the quality of vegetable seeds being made available to Indian farmers. The Imperial Council of Agricultural Research even drafted an Agricultural Seeds Act which was circulated amongst the provinces for comment. Despite extensive consultations, this effort was abandoned weeks before India declared independence in July 1947 due to the uncertainty brought about by partition and the fact that the new Constitution was yet to be finalised.

After India became independent and democratic under a new Constitution in 1950, it was the states which took the lead in enacting new laws related to seeds and other plant reproductive material. For instance, in 1952 the state of Jammu and Kashmir which acceded to India in 1948, enacted the Jammu and Kashmir Vegetable Seeds Act to regulate its growing vegetable seed industry.

Similarly, Himachal Pradesh enacted the Himachal Pradesh Fruit Nurseries Registration Act, 1956 to regulate the supply of seeds to its booming fruit orchards. More recently in 2020, Punjab enacted the Punjab Tissue Culture Based Seed Potato Act, 2020 to regulate the type of seeds supplied to its potato farms. States have also enacted general laws to regulate the trade of seeds like The East Punjab Improved Seeds and Seedlings Act, 1949 and The Andhra Pradesh (Telangana Area) Seeds and Seedlings Act, 1951. The variety of different laws enacted by states reflects the vast diversity of agriculture in India.

This variety of state laws reflect the fact that state governments were actively responding to the demands of their farmers and local agricultural economies. Some of these states have refined their laws over time – Himachal Pradesh has had two further iterations of its law regulating fruit nurseries, in 1973 and 2015, indicating that the state government is learning and adapting its regulatory framework to deal with evolving challenges. The new seed law proposed by the Union Government threatens to disrupt, and even void, these numerous state laws.

The constitutional question

The question now is whether Parliament can enact a new seed law when the states have already enacted laws on the issue?

As per the Constitution, legislative powers are distributed between the Union and states across three lists in the Seventh Schedule to the Constitution. List I (Union List) specifies the subjects on which Parliament can enact laws, List II State List) specifies the subjects on which state legislatures can enact laws, and List III (Concurrent List) specifies the subjects on which both Parliament and state legislatures can enact laws, subject to parliamentary law over-ruling state law in case of a conflict between both laws.

The Union Government and the seed industry will point to the fact that Parliament has already enacted a Seeds Act back in 1966. This law was a key component of the plan drawn up by the Rockefeller Foundation in the 1960s for the Green Revolution in India. The foundation had advised the Indian government to create a private seed industry in India which could supply seeds to farmers before every sowing season. This was a necessity at the time because the Green Revolution was driven by hybrid seeds which do not reproduce “true to type”. As a result, farmers had to buy new seeds every sowing season and somebody needed to supply those seeds. It was in this context that The Seeds Act, 1966 was meant to regulate the quality of seeds being supplied to farmers.

However, when the Seeds Act, 1966 was being discussed in Parliament, the opposition had raised the issue of legislative competence, pointing out that since “agriculture” was on the State List in the Seventh Schedule and that Parliament lacked the competence to enact the seeds law. The government had no credible answer to this question and the discussion was adjourned, only for the bill to be passed by Parliament a few months later without providing a satisfactory answer to the constitutional issue raised by the Opposition.

Since 1966, the issue of legislative competence pertaining to seeds has been litigated before the courts primarily in the context of seed pricing laws. For example, in 2011, the Gujarat High Court struck down as unconstitutional the Gujarat Cotton Seeds (Regulation of Supply, Distribution, Sale and Fixation of Sale Price) Act, 2008 on the grounds that the state law conflicted with union laws. In coming to this conclusion, the court identified Item 33 of the Concurrent List in the Seventh Schedule as the relevant clause because it specifically mentions “cotton seeds” in the context of inter-state commerce.

But what about laws which regulate the quality, cultivation and trade of seeds other than cotton seeds? This question came up in court when the State Government of Punjab prohibited the sowing and sale of seeds of a specific variety of hybrid rice (PUSA-44) under the East Punjab Improved Seeds & Seedlings Act, 1949. This variety was prohibited because of concerns that it was guzzling water leading to increased use of scarce ground water and leaving behind more stubble which would then contribute to farm fires etc.

That order banning PUSA-44 was challenged by the seed industry and ultimately in a judgment delivered in August, 2025 the Punjab & Haryana High Court struck down the ban. The court reasoned that Entry 33 of the Concurrent List was the relevant clause governing all seeds laws and since the Union had already enacted the Seeds Act, 1966; the state government could not exercise its legislative or executive powers in a manner which clashed with the Union’s laws.

With all due respect to the High Court, its reasoning was deeply flawed. Traditionally in disputes regarding the legislative competence, Indian courts have followed the test of “pith and substance”. This test requires courts to ascertain the true character or essence of the law while determining the entry/list of the Seventh Schedule under which the law can be located. This could mean that different aspects of a single commodity can be regulated by different legislatures depending on the “pith and substance” of the law.

For example, in the context of seeds, a law bestowing intellectual property rights in the seeds, like the Plant Variety Protection and Farmers Rights Act, 2001 can be located under Entry 49 of the Union List which deals with “patents, inventions” etc. However, a law regulating measures to protect seeds against pests and plant diseases will clearly fall within Entry 14 of the State List which deals with “Agriculture, including agricultural education and research, protection against pests and prevention of plant diseases”.

Similarly, it could be argued quite easily that a law aimed at regulating the quality of seeds, such as the proposed seeds law, is essentially a law regulating agriculture. This is because any law regulating seeds is aimed specifically at the manner in which seeds are grown on farms to ensure the highest level of purity and germination. The essence of these activities, aimed at how plants are grown, arguably falls within the definition of agriculture.

Therefore, if a state is opposed to the Union encroaching upon its powers to enact a seed law, it could challenge the constitutionality of the Seeds Act, 1966 by suing the Union before the Supreme Court under Article 131 of the Constitution. It is very likely that the court will hold that the Union can only regulate certain aspects of the seed industry such as import, export and inter-state commerce, while leaving the states with the power to regulate the quality of seeds grown, sold and cultivated within their borders.

Centralise powers over agriculture

If the new law is enacted it will significantly centralise powers to regulate the seed trade with the Union Government. The seed industry is in favour of such centralisation because it would spare them the pain of negotiating with individual state governments. They will have to deal with only one set of bureaucrats in New Delhi on contentious issues such as standards, certification requirements, labelling criteria and price control.

Such centralisation of power bodes poorly for state governments and federalism in India especially with lucrative crops. For example, in 2017, the Union Government invoked its powers under the Seeds Act, 1966 to restrict the states in which basmati rice could be grown. This decision deeply prejudiced farmers in Madhya Pradesh.

In the cases of both PUSA-44 and basmati, state governments were left to negotiate with New Delhi on an issue as basic as what can be grown within their own borders. Such an arrangement may not be desirable, given the history of bad blood between the states and the union, when opposing political parties are in power. This is especially true for states where seed quality has become an explosive political issue with farmers.

As the impending delimitation of parliamentary seats creates ever more tension in India’s federal governance, the question of legislative competence on issues related to agriculture deserves more attention in the debate over the new seed law.

Prashant Reddy Thikkavarapu is a doctoral scholar at the TC Bernie School of Law, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia.

The Calcutta High Court on Thursday declined to issue a stay on a notification issued by the Bharatiya Janata Party government in West Bengal on May 13 regulating the slaughter of cattle ahead of the festival of Bakrid.

A bench comprising Chief Justice Sujoy Paul and Justice Partha Sarathi Sen said that the notification was issued in compliance with earlier orders passed by the court.

On May 13, the Suvendu Adhikari-led government, in one of its first steps after coming to power in the state on May 4, said that the provisions of the Animal Slaughter Control Act will be strictly enforced.

The order came two weeks before Bakrid on May 27. Bakrid, also known as Eid-al-Adha, is a Muslim festival that commemorates the spirit of sacrifice. The festival is traditionally marked by the slaughtering of goats.

The government notification makes it mandatory for persons to obtain a certificate before slaughtering animals such as buffaloes, cows and bulls. It also prohibits public slaughter of the animals and states that officials carrying out inspections to enforce the order should not be obstructed.

On Thursday, the bench was dealing with a batch of petitions challenging the directive to strictly enforce the Animal Slaughter Control Act.

Petitioners, including Trinamool Congress MLA Akhruzzaman, and organisations representing Muslim groups and cattle traders, argued that the notification virtually made animal sacrifices on Bakrid impossible, Live Law reported.

It also adversely affected religious practices and the rural economy, the petitioners added.

Akhruzzaman argued that the religious obligation of animal sacrifice cannot lawfully be performed on Bakrid as the state government had failed to grant an exemption under Section 12 of the Animal Slaughter Control Act, Bar and Bench reported.

His petition noted that Section 12 of the Act empowers the state government to exempt, by general or special order and subject to conditions, the slaughter of any animal for religious purposes.

On the other hand, another petition filed in the court sought the addition of two more conditions to the May 13 notice to ensure its stricter implementation. The first condition it sought was to include in the notification that the slaughter of animals in open public places is strictly prohibited.

It also sought a clause stating that the sacrifice of a cow is not an essential religious requirement of Islam.

Refusing to interfere with the notice, the Court said that it will be lawful for the state government to examine whether there exists a proper mechanism for issuing the necessary certificates under the Act

“In addition, whether responsible officers are in place in the state for issuing such certificate and whether the necessary infrastructure is at place in the entire state where slaughter can take place,” it said. “If any deficiency is found by the state, we hope and trust that same shall be cured at the earliest.”

On the addition of the two clauses, the bench said that the Supreme Court has already held that sacrificing a cow is not a religious requirement under Islam.

“We find no difficulty in directing the state to consider amendment of the impugned notice by inserting aforesaid two conditions forthwith,” the High Court said. “We order accordingly.”

Written by Leah Thomas. Edited by Neerad Pandharipande.

India’s peak power demand hit a record high for the fourth consecutive day on Thursday amid a heatwave in several regions of the country, the Ministry of Power said.

The ministry said that at 3.45 pm on Thursday, an energy demand of 270.8 gigawatts was recorded.

“The surge in demand appears to be linked to the greater usage of cooling appliances in view of the prevailing weather conditions across the country,” the ministry said.

Thursday’s peak electricity demand was met through diversified energy sources, it said. Thermal power constituted the largest share at 62.8%, followed by solar at 22.0%, hydro at 5.8% and wind at 5.0%, with the remainder energy supplied by other sources, the ministry said.

“The availability of coal at the thermal power plants is adequate and the supplies are being effectively monitored,” the ministry added.

India’s peak power demand hit successive all-time highs this week, surging from 257.3 gigawatts on Monday to 260.4 gigawatts on Tuesday and 265.4 gigawatts by Wednesday.

The government had projected that the peak power demand would reach 271 gigawatts this summer, The Times of India reported.

The record power demand comes amid Delhi recording its highest night temperature for May in nearly 14 years on Wednesday, at 31.9 degrees Celsius.

On Thursday, the weather department issued an orange alert for heatwave conditions in the national capital region for the next five days. An orange alert requires the authorities to “be prepared to take action”.

Written by Sara Varghese. Edited by Nachiket Deuskar.

The coastal district of Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh is set for a major transformation. On April 28, the foundation stone was laid in Tarluvada, a village in Vizag for a new data centre for Google – expected to be the technology company’s largest data centre outside the United States.

The data centre is part of an AI Hub announced by the company last October. The state government allotted 480 acres of land in Visakhapatnam and Anakapalli districts for the hub.

Activists and lawyers have raised environmental concerns and questions about the lack of clarity on water and energy consumption for the operation of the approved data centres. They also assert that data centres should be classified as separate infrastructure projects with massive resource needs, for obtaining environment clearance.

Experts call for a clear, defined national data centre policy. After a draft policy was launched by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology of India in 2020, there have been no updates or a final policy yet.

Meanwhile, Reliance Industries Ltd is also planning to build a 1.5 gigawatt data centre cluster, also in Vizag. AP aims to create 6.5 GW of compute capacity in the coming years.

Environmental concerns

Data centres use water, primarily for cooling the systems. Google alone consumed approximately 31 billion litres of water across all its data centres in 2024. While the company reports that a majority of its freshwater withdrawals came from sources at low risk of water depletion, further information on said sources was not provided.

It also states that it’s planning integrated watershed management to address existing hydrological stress. However, Visakhapatnam district has the lowest levels of groundwater available for domestic, agricultural or industrial use in the state (2.12 TMC), as on April 1, 2026.

The AP government, in its state data centre policy, also proposes to leverage seawater cooling systems as a cooling solution, but it is unclear what percentage of freshwater and seawater would be used in the Tarluvada project.

The environmental clearance issued to M/s Vizag Mega Data Centre Park Limited for the 1000 megawatt (1 GW) data centre park in Tarluvada, accessed by Mongabay-India, does not disclose information about the water usage during the operation phase. Emails to Google with questions about their water consumption plans in Andhra Pradesh were unanswered at the time of publishing this story.

“We don’t know the source of water for the operation of the data centre (in Tarluvada). It is not mentioned in the EC,” said Gutta Rohith, an advocate with Human Rights Forum, an organisation that has demanded the suspension of the environmental clearance for this data centre project. “We don’t know if they are going to use desalinised water or surface water or groundwater. Even the amount of water required for cooling in this hyperscale data centre is not mentioned in the EC,” he said. Hyperscale data centres, like the one being built in Tarluvada for Google, are large facilities meant for vast data processing and storage needs.

“In the case of seawater cooling, it’ll be important to ensure compliance with the coastal zone regulations as it’ll need infrastructure to transport the water and potential impacts on the biodiversity and coastal communities and livelihoods,” said Shalu Agarwal, Director of Programmes at the think-tank Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW).

For the AI Hub in Vizag, AdaniConnex and Airtel will support the infrastructure for clean energy and subsea cables. But Rohith questions what percentage of the operations would come from renewable energy and if the transmission infrastructure is prepared for the same.

“Hyperscale data centres also train their artificial intelligence models. They require high processing servers and consume more energy than regular data centres. Data centres have to run 24×7. The large language models created by the tech companies need to be trained all the time. We need to know how much energy will be consumed by this 1 GW data centre and how much of it is renewable energy and also how the companies will transmit the energy from, say, solar parks,” said Rohith.

He also adds that creating more solar parks locally to power gigawatt-scale data centres would need thousands of acres of land.

“Due to high uptime requirements, data centres can have huge outage costs; so they cannot really afford power outages,” said Shalu. “Even a 100 MW hyperscaler would consume electricity to the equivalent of a large village. Also, the energy demand pattern of these hyperscale facilities is dynamic and less predictable, because it is closely linked to the AI workloads that can go up and down. That then can have significant implications on the grid stability and the frequency,” she adds.

Rohith also points out that there is no separate category for data centres in the Environment Impact Assessment notification. “Data centres are being categorised as buildings or township development projects wherein there’s no need for a public hearing or draft EIA [Environment Impact Assessment] reports. This is the case for all states and they (the companies) get state level approval where the State Environment Impact Assessment Authority [SEIAA] provides the EC [environmental clearance].”

For the Tarluvada project, the company submitted the proposal on April 9 and about 10 days later, on April 18, the environmental clearance was approved by the State Environment Impact Assessment Authority. While the state government promotes ease of doing business, Human Rights Forum questions the lack of clarity on the resource use.

Resource use

The lack of information on resource use is not a challenge in Vizag alone. “We definitely need clarity from the company or the state about what resources will be used and how much groundwater will be consumed to operate the data centre,” said Indumugi C, a legal counsel at Internet Freedom Foundation and the author of a recent factsheet on India’s data centres. “We filed an RTI with the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India asking for information about the environmental impacts of data centres. This was forwarded to The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, which said that it has zero information about data centres, whereas it was MeitY that created the draft data centre policy for India in 2020.”

All around the globe, investigations have shown that the communities don’t receive much information about the data centres that come up in their neighbourhoods.

Brazil-based investigative journalist Lais Martins who has been reporting on technology for over eight years says, “In Brazil, the most striking pattern is the lack of information for the communities. Companies that are developing data centres don’t inform communities about the impacts. They treat this as any other industrial development like factories or renewable power plants. They fail to treat data centres as very specific infrastructure with very specific needs – energy and water use for example, compared to other types of infrastructure.”

“Many documents we try to access are not open to the public because of business confidentiality,” she adds.

Martins says that India needs to take into account if the data centres make the tech industry more independent. “Are these data centres making our countries more sovereign? This has to be a discussion on the table.”

India’s goals

With data generation increasing at an unprecedented rate, data centres are rapidly being built all around the world. India’s total data centre capacity has increased from about 375 MW in 2020 to around 1.5 GW by 2025. The country hosts nearly 20% of the world’s data, while its data centre capacity stands at around 3% of the global total.

“The AI world is about intelligence. Intelligence is based on knowledge and knowledge is based on data. Therefore, it is important to keep data within India and have our own LLMs. That requires us to have data centres within our boundaries. So, it is not just about digital sovereignty but also intellectual sovereignty,” said Sharad Agarwal, the CEO of the technology company Sify which has 14 operational data centres in India. The AI Impact Summit held earlier this year in New Delhi also spotlighted the country’s goal to place democratisation at the core of the artificial intelligence strategy.

The digital economy is expected to contribute 20% of the national income of India by 2030, which also underscores the significance of data centres. In the Union Budget 2026-’27, the government has also announced a tax holiday till 2047 for eligible foreign cloud service providers operating through India-based data centre infrastructure.

With Indian policies aimed at positioning itself as a global investment hub for artificial intelligence, the data centre industry must look at environment-friendly ways to operate.

Data centre tech

A data centre’s energy and water efficiency are measured via two main metrics – Power Usage Efficiency and Water Usage Efficiency. While the PUE generally ranges from 1 (efficient) to 2 (inefficient), WUE ranges from 0 litres per kWh to over 2.5 L/kWh.

With the growing AI use and demand, the energy density is also changing and one data centre could consume up to double the power it did for a non-AI workload. “So we’re working on technologies like direct-to-chip liquid cooling, wherein instead of just cooling the atmosphere around the systems, we reduce the heat within the critical components of CPUs by cooling them directly,” said Sharad.

“The PUE [Power Usage Efficiency] in Indian data centres is continuously being improved,” he adds. “It used to be closer to 2 and now with advanced technologies like direct-to-chip liquid cooling, the PUE is heading close to 1.3. The data centre industry is widely investing in renewable energy and in Sify about 60% of our energy consumption comes from solar and wind.”

For water usage, there are several new technologies that are being developed and tested. There are two major methods through which data centres cool their systems. One method is evaporative cooling which cools hot server air by using evaporating water to absorb and remove heat before the air is recirculated. This uses a lot of water. The second way is a closed loop system. “In India, for over a decade now, Indian data centres have been adapting to closed-loop water chiller systems where the water is filled only once and this water goes to the chiller and keeps getting reused,” said Sharad.

National data centre policy

Amid advancements in data centre technology and new investments, India does not still have a national policy framework specifically governing data centres. Experts note that this is an important step.

“We should have a very clear framework so that there’s no confusion across states and developers also don’t scout for states with better incentives. There should be uniform performance benchmarks, PUE and WUE,” said Shalu.

“Creating investment channels for a whole new sector means that we’re also allowing the sector to acquire land and resources. A national policy needs to consider how we’re allocating land and looking at land use. Displacement can occur like any other large scale projects in the country,” warns Indumugi.

The way forward

Currently 15 states have their own data centre policies. Most of these policies exhibit an absence of performance standards such as Power Usage Efficiency or Water Usage Efficiency, finds a CEEW report on scaling India’s data centres.

At present, the energy and water demand of data centres when you look at the national level is not a lot, shares Shalu. The CEEW report notes, in 2025, data centres account for ~0.5% of national electricity consumption. “The water use is also approximately 0.02%-0.03% of the national demand,” Shalu adds.

“However, because they are water and energy-intensive, depending upon their siting, the pressure they put on the local grid and water resources can become concerning,” she adds. A recent map by WRI India showed that more than half of India’s data centres are located in water-stressed regions.

Decisions taken today on siting, power sourcing, and cooling technologies will shape India’s long-term environmental and infrastructure footprint, the CEEW report notes.

Shalu also highlights the need for improved centre-state coordination for transmission lines and energy networks, and long-term standards for data centre companies. The bigger data centres need higher voltage substations, dedicated transmission lines, and intrastate networks. These take time which oftentimes are not available when data centres are mushrooming. “More coordination is needed between centre and state to plan ahead in time for those transmission facilities – at the interstate level or intrastate level,” she explains.

“We also need to set long-term standards for data companies wherein there’s a set trajectory to improve the standards every few years as the technology improves, nudging the developers to invest in environment-friendly technologies.”

Linking this to incentives, Shalu cites the example of the Singapore Green Data Center Roadmap that incentivises energy-efficiency and concludes, “We are also providing several incentives for data centres to invest in India. So, why not use that as a condition to also meet environmental standards?”

This article was first published on Mongabay.

The X account of satirical political campaign Cockroach Janta Party was blocked in India “in response to a legal demand”. The social media campaign, which began on Saturday in response to comments made by Chief Justice Surya Kant, describes itself as a “political front of the youth, by the youth, for the youth”.

It was created by Abhijeet Dipke, a 30-year-old political communications strategist from Pune. Dipke was part of the Aam Aadmi Party’s social media team. The campaign had garnered 15.5 million followers on Instagram as of Thursday evening, ahead of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party’s 8.8 million.

On Thursday, Dipke asked if the page had been withheld because the campaign had sought the resignation of Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan over the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test for medical college admissions being cancelled following a paper leak. He described the blocking order as an “own goal” by the authorities. Read on.

The Calcutta High Court directed the West Bengal Police not to take coercive action against Trinamool Congress leader Abhishek Banerjee till July 31 for his allegedly provocative remarks about Union Home Minister Amit Shah at political rallies during the Assembly election campaign.

The bench said that Banerjee did not need to be interrogated in custody and that the police can send a notice requiring his presence during the investigation.

However, the bench verbally objected to Banerjee’s remark from a rally in which he had asked “which godfather” from Delhi would “come to their rescue” after the election results, in apparent references to Shah. “...These statements were uncalled for,” the judge said. Read on.

At 31.9 degrees Celsius, Delhi recorded its highest night temperature for May in nearly 14 years on Wednesday. The India Meteorological Department issued an orange alert for heatwave conditions in the national capital region for the next five days. The orange alert requires the authorities to “be prepared to take action”.

The maximum temperature is expected to reach 46 degrees Celsius during the week, it said. Read on.

The West Bengal government made singing Vande Mataram mandatory in all madrasas under the state’s Minority Affairs and Madrasah Education Department. The directive will apply to “government model madrasas, recognised government-aided and unaided madrasas” with immediate effect.

The order came five days after the new Bharatiya Janata Party government in West Bengal directed all state-run and state-aided schools to mandatorily sing Vande Mataram during morning assemblies. Read on.

Two Congress MLAs were among the 23 legislators sworn into the Tamil Nadu Cabinet. While the Congress had been part of the ruling alliances in Tamil Nadu, this is the first time in 59 years that it is part of the state government.

Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam leader and Chief Minister Vijay’s 10-member Cabinet had been sworn-in on May 10. Read on.

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The X account of satirical political campaign Cockroach Janta Party was on Thursday blocked in India.

The profile was withheld “in response to a legal demand”, the platform said.

The social media campaign, which began on Saturday, describes itself as a “political front of the youth, by the youth, for the youth”.

It was created by Abhijeet Dipke, a 30-year-old political communications strategist from Pune. Dipke has a background in public relations and journalism, and was part of the Aam Aadmi Party’s social media team.

Since it was launched in response to reports of remarks by Chief Justice Surya Kant on Friday comparing some unemployed youngsters to “cockroaches”, the campaign had garnered 13.8 million followers on Instagram as of Thursday afternoon. It was ahead of 8.8 million followers of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party on the platform and 13.3 million of the Congress.

“There are youngsters like cockroaches, who don’t get any employment or have any place in profession,” PTI had quoted Kant as having said. “Some of them become media, some of them become social media, RTI activists and other activists and they start attacking everyone.”

After the X account was withheld on Thursday, Dipke asked in a post on Instagram “why are they so scared of us?”

He asked if the page had been blocked because the campaign had sought the resignation of Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan over the undergraduate National Eligibility cum Entrance Test being cancelled following a paper leak.

However, Dipke said that the blocking of the X account was on expected lines and described it as an “own goal” by the authorities.

Hours later, Dipke said that the campaign had opened a new X account.

The chief justice claimed on Saturday that he had been misquoted by sections of the media and that it was baseless to say that he criticised young people in general. Kant claimed he had specifically criticised “those who have entered professions like the Bar [legal profession] with the aid of fake and bogus degrees”.

Nevertheless, the remarks sparked a social media furore that contributed to the creation and swift rise in popularity of the Cockroach Janta Party.

Three trademark applications filed

Three trademark applications have been filed for the phrase “Cockroach Janta Party”, records from the Trade Marks Registry’s public portal showed on Thursday.

The applications have been filed under Class 45, which cover legal and security services, and certain personal and social services.

Two of the applications were filed by persons identified as Azim Adambhai Jam and Akhand Swaroop. The status for both showed that they had cleared basic administrative and documentary checks.

The third application was filed for a label mark, or to trademark an entire visual design, by an entity identifying itself as the “Cockroach Janta Party”.

The status of the third application reads “send to Vienna codification”, which means the request was to be forwarded to the Vienna Codification branch for further steps in assigning an internationally-recognised code in line with the rules of the Vienna Convention.

Written by Neerad Pandharipande and Sara Varghese. Edited by Nachiket Deuskar.

The operation began on Wednesday when the security forces received intelligence inputs about alleged attempts to sell stolen arms and ammunition in the area, India Today NE reported.

Security personnel initially apprehended two members of the UNLF(P), Heisnam Thomas Singh and Arambam Tomtom Singh, during the operation. The police recovered an InSAS light machine gun, three magazines and 14 live rounds from their possession.

Today 20.05.2026, Manipur Police arrested two cadres of UNLF (P) from Lamdeng, Imphal West, namely, 1. Arambam Tomtom (29) R/O Heibongpokpi Mayai Leikai, Lamsang, Imphal West, and 2. Heisnam Thomas R/O Mayang Imphal Kokchai.
From their possession, one InSAS LMG with three… pic.twitter.com/KiZuEW3fdk

— Manipur Police (@manipur_police) May 20, 2026

However, when the process to arrest them was underway, some of their alleged associates shot at the security forces, leading to a brief exchange of fire, ANI reported.

Two more alleged members of the UNLF(P) – Ningthoujam Rakesh Singh and Chingakham Mahesh Singh – were arrested in connection with the firing, the news agency reported.

The arrested persons allegedly disclosed during interrogation that they had arrived in the area to sell the weapons “on the instruction” of UNLF(P) leader Naorem Bijoy, ANI quoted the police as saying.

They also allegedly told the police that they had been involved in selling stolen arms and ammunition earlier as well.

Based on subsequent information, a team comprising the Manipur Police, Assam Rifles and the Central Reserve Police Force carried out a cordon-and-search operation at a camp of the armed insurgent group in Lamdeng. During the operation, the security forces seized 29 weapons, including AK-series rifles, M-series rifles, pistols and other firearms, India Today NE reported.

On Thursday, the security forces recovered an additional 38 weapons, including rifles, carbines, mortars, an RPG-7 launcher, an anti-drone jammer and a large number of explosives, ANI reported.

Ethnic clashes had broken out between the Meitei and Kuki-Zo-Hmar communities in Manipur in May 2023, leaving at least 260 persons dead and more than 59,000 persons displaced. There were periodic upticks in violence in 2024 and 2025.

Edited by Nachiket Deuskar.

A summit between India and the African Union that was scheduled to be held next week in New Delhi has been postponed amid an Ebola outbreak in Africa, the Ministry of External Affairs said on Thursday.

The summit was to be held between May 28 and May 31 to strengthen political dialogue, economic cooperation, trade, investments, technology transfer and people-to-people relations.

The external affairs ministry said that the decision was taken because of the “evolving health situation in parts of Africa”.

The ministry added that it recognises “the importance of ensuring the full participation and engagement of African leaders and stakeholders”, which prompted discussions between the Union government, the chairperson of the African Union and the African Union Commission.

“Following these consultations, the two sides agreed that it would be advisable to convene the Fourth India-Africa Forum Summit at a later date,” the ministry said.

It added that new dates for the summit would be announced after “mutual consultations”.

On Wednesday, the World Health Organization said that there have been 600 suspected cases of Ebola and 139 suspected deaths, and that the numbers are expected to rise.

On Sunday, the United Nations body had declared the current outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda a public health emergency of international concern.

The WHO said that the outbreak, caused by the Bundibugyo virus, does not meet the criteria of a pandemic emergency. However, the trends of suspected cases and clusters of deaths being reported “point towards a potentially much larger outbreak than what is currently being detected and reported, with significant local and regional risk of spread”.

Ebola is a virus that causes sudden fever, intense weakness, muscle pain and a sore throat in the initial stages. However, it escalates to vomiting, diarrhoea, internal and external bleeding. Infection occurs after coming into direct contact with the blood, vomit, faeces or bodily fluids of someone suffering from Ebola. Patients reportedly die due to dehydration and multiple organ failure.

There is no proven cure for Ebola and the disease has an average fatality rate of about 50%, according to the World Health Organization.

About 15,000 persons have died from the virus in Africa in the past 50 years. The Democratic Republic of Congo’s deadliest outbreak occurred between 2018 and 2020, when nearly 2,300 persons died, while another outbreak in a remote region last year killed 45 people.

Written by Sara Varghese. Edited by Nachiket Deuskar.

The Calcutta High Court on Thursday directed the West Bengal Police not to take any coercive action against Trinamool Congress MP Abhishek Banerjee till July 31 over his allegedly provocative remarks about Union Home Minister Amit Shah at political rallies during the Assembly election campaign, Live Law reported.

Justice Saugata Bhattacharya said that Banerjee did not need to be interrogated in custody, and that his rights were protected under Section 35(3) of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita. The provision states that in cases where a person does not need to be arrested in connection with an investigation, the police needs to send a notice requiring their presence during the investigation.

The judge directed Banerjee to cooperate with the investigative agency and comply with notices issued to him, Live Law reported. The police should give at least 48 hours’ time to the TMC MP in the notices, the court added.

However, Bhattacharya objected to Banerjee’s remark from a rally in which he had asked “which godfather” from Delhi would “come to their rescue” after the election results, in apparent references to Shah and Bharatiya Janata Party workers.

“Being a Member of Parliament, how such statement could have been made,” Bar and Bench quoted the judge as asking. “I am repeating, these statements were uncalled for.”

In response, Banerjee’s lawyer Kalyan Bandopadhyay, questioned whether the statement had in fact led to any violence.

“Complainant has not cited any incident,” Bar and Bench quoted the lawyer as saying. “If nothing has happened, it cannot be taken into cognisance.”

The case will be heard further on July 20.

The first information report in the matter was filed based on a complaint alleging that Banerjee made inflammatory remarks in speeches during the West Bengal election campaign between April 27 and May 3.

The speeches made by the TMC’s national general secretary promoted enmity and disturbed public tranquillity, the complainant alleged, adding that it also included threats directed at the Union home minister.

The complaint was filed on May 5, a day after the BJP defeated the TMC in the Assembly elections, ending its 15-year tenure in the state.

HC stays coercive action against TMC MLA

In a separate case, the High Court stayed coercive action against TMC MLA Paresh Ram Das till June 30, Bar and Bench reported.

Das approached the High Court after six criminal cases were filed against him on May 16 at the Canning Police Station. His lawyer argued that the cases were the result of “political vengeance” after the election result and change in government in West Bengal, Bar and Bench reported.

Most of the complaints dated back to 2021, the lawyer further told the court.

The court on Thursday verbally expressed doubts about the genuineness of the sixth case.

“Prima facie it appears the petitioner’s name at the bottom of the complaint was written in a different manner,” Bar and Bench quoted the judge as saying. “Since investigation is at a nascent stage, more than that, court is not making any observation.”

Edited by Sara Varghese.

Delhi recorded its highest night temperature for the month of May in nearly 14 years on Wednesday, at 31.9 degrees Celsius, The Hindu quoted the India Meteorological Department as saying.

Weather stations in the city’s Safdarjung and Lodhi Road area recorded warm night conditions on Wednesday.

The weather station in Safdarjung recorded a night temperature 5.2 degrees Celsius above normal at 31.9 degrees Celsius, while Lodhi Road was 4.6 degrees Celsius above normal, settling at 29.6 degrees Celsius.

On Thursday, the weather department issued an orange alert for heatwave conditions in the national capital region for the next five days. An orange alert requires the authorities to “be prepared to take action”.

The IMD declares a heat wave in the plains when the day’s maximum temperature remains 40 degrees Celsius or more and the minimum temperature departure is between 4.5 degrees Celsius and 6.4 degrees Celsius above normal.

The weather agency’s forecast has warned of continued warm night conditions on Thursday and Friday across Delhi, Faridabad, Gurugram, Noida and Ghaziabad.

The maximum temperature in Delhi is expected to touch 46 degrees Celsius during the course of the week, The Hindu reported.

Other parts of the country are also reeling from the heat, with Maharashtra reporting at least two confirmed deaths and over 200 cases of heatstrokes since March 1, The Indian Express reported on Thursday, quoting state health department data.

The two deaths were reported from Akola and Latur, while six other deaths suspected to be caused by heatstroke are under investigation in Ahilyanagar, Akola, Latur and Solapur.

On Wednesday, Banda district in Uttar Pradesh recorded the highest maximum temperature in the country at 48.2 degrees Celsius, the IMD said.

Other parts of the country including parts of Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh recorded temperatures 5.1 degrees Celsius higher than normal on Wednesday.

Edited by Neerad Pandharipande.

The West Bengal government has made singing Vande Mataram mandatory in all madrasas under the state’s Minority Affairs and Madrasah Education Department, The Telegraph reported on Thursday.

The directive will apply to “government model madrasahs, recognised government-aided and unaided madrasas” in the state with immediate effect, according to a May 19 order by the director of madrasah education.

“In suppression of all previous orders and practices, singing of Vande Mataram during assembly prayers, prior to the commencement of classes, is hereby made mandatory,” The Telegraph quoted the order as saying.

Madrasas have been told to submit compliance reports on the implementation of the direction, the newspaper quoted unidentified officials from the department as saying.

The order came five days after the state’s newly elected Bharatiya Janata Party government directed all state-run and state-aided schools to mandatorily sing Vande Mataram during morning assemblies.

Schools in West Bengal had traditionally sung only the national anthem, Jana Gana Mana, during assemblies. In recent years, the previous Trinamool Congress government had also introduced singing of Banglar Mati Banglar Jol, the state song.

On January 28, the Union home ministry directed that all six stanzas of the Vande Mataram be sung first when it is played together with the Jana Gana Mana.

Only the first two stanzas of the national song had been played at official functions earlier. The remaining stanzas, which invoke Hindu goddesses Durga, Lakshmi and Saraswati, had been omitted.

Edited by Sneha.

The Bharatiya Janata Party government in West Bengal has told its employees not to speak with the media without permission, citing conduct rules, The Indian Express reported on Thursday.

In a circular, Chief Secretary Manoj Agarwal reiterated the rules governing the conduct of the All India Services, the West Bengal Civil Service, the West Bengal Police Service and other state government employees.

Citing the 1968 All India Service Conduct Rules, the 1980 West Bengal Service Duties, Rights and Obligations of Government Employees Rules and the 1959 West Bengal Government Servants Conduct Rules, Agarwal said that these regulations define the “nature of and limitations on” interactions with the media.

The chief secretary said that there would be a “complete prohibition, except with prior sanction, on the participation or association of any member of the services in any sponsored or privately produced media programme or any media programme sponsored by the government of India but produced by an outside agency”, The Indian Express reported.

The circular also noted that there would be a “complete prohibition without any governmental order” on any direct or indirect communication of any document or information with the press by the members of the services.

It prohibited contributions “in editing or managing of any newspaper, periodical or any other publication and on any participation in any radio broadcast or writing of any article or letter for any newspaper or periodical by any member of the services”.

The circular further barred government employees from criticisng policies or decisions of the state or Union government through publications, media interactions, broadcasts, statements, or any other form of communication, The Indian Express reported.

It applies to employees of the state government, autonomous bodies, boards, corporations, undertakings, educational institutions substantially funded by the government and members of the All India Services that are part of state government affairs, according to the newspaper.

Edited by Sneha.

The Union government on Wednesday told the Supreme Court that it is not in favour of permitting any new hydroelectric projects in the Alaknanda and Bhagirathi River basins in the upper reaches of the Ganga in Uttarakhand, The Indian Express reported.

In a common affidavit submitted in the court, the ministries of Environment, Jal Shakti and Power said that this is apart from seven projects that have either been commissioned or are in advanced stages of construction, The Hindu reported.

These seven projects will have a total capacity of over 2,150 MW. They are the Tehri Stage–II project (1,000 megawatts), Tapovan Vishnugad (520 megawatts), Vishnugad Pipalkoti (444 megawatts), Signoli Bhatwari (99 megawatts), Phata Byung (76 megawatts), Madhmaheshwar (15 megawatts) and Kaliganga–II (4.5 megawatts).

Since 2013, the court has been examining the question of allowing new hydroelectric projects in the upper reaches of the Ganga. This question arose in light of the floods in Kedarnath that year, which killed at least 5,000 persons.

The court, which took suo moto cognisance of the question, had directed the Union government to examine the role such projects played in amplifying the disaster. It also halted these projects in the state and asked the environment ministry to form a committee to study the impact.

The ministry has since formed three committees.

Apart from the Union government, the court has been hearing arguments from power companies that have opposed recommendations to halt certain projects.

In January, the court directed the Union government to take a final decision on the matter within three months.

In the affidavit submitted on Wednesday, the three ministries said that there is a considerable difference in the Ganga river system as compared to other river systems, adding that special treatment is therefore required for this region, The Indian Express reported.

It added that the geological and ecological integrity needs to be maintained for the Alaknanda and Bhagirathi basins, which harbour headstreams of the river Ganga.

“Headstreams are critical for supplying food/nutrients and critical biodiversity to the riverine ecosystem,” the newspaper quoted the ministries as adding.

The affidavit also added that of the seven hydroelectric projects that have been exempted, four were already commissioned and three have already “achieved substantial physical and financial progress”.

These projects may be permitted to proceed subject to strict compliance with all applicable statutory provisions and environmental safeguards, the affidavit said.

“Apart from these seven projects the Indian government is not in favour of permitting any other new hydro-electric project in the Alaknanda and Bhagirathi River in the upper reaches of the River Ganga in the state of Uttarakhand,” the newspaper quoted it as adding.

The three committees

The first 17-member committee formed to look into hydroelectric projects in the state was led by environmentalist Ravi Chopra, The Hindu reported. It concluded in 2014 that hydroelectric projects exacerbated the disaster and recommended not going ahead with 24 proposed projects.

However, the proponents of six hydroelectric projects moved the court seeking permission to resume their work. Subsequently, a second committee was formed in 2015 that found that the six projects had prior clearances but would pose serious ecological impacts, The Indian Express reported.

The Union government then set up a third committee under engineer BP Das, who studied 70 projects and recommended in March 2020 that only 28 be given approvals.

However, the Union government in 2021 recommended that only seven of these 28 be granted permission to go ahead, The Hindu reported.

In August 2024, the court asked the Union government why it had allowed only the seven projects. It also constituted another committee to revisit the BP Das report and take a decision on the 21 hydroelectric projects.

Edited by Neerad Pandharipande.

Two MLAs from the Congress were sworn into the Tamil Nadu Cabinet led by the Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam government on Thursday. This is the first time in 59 years that the party will be part of the state Cabinet.

Party leaders S Rajesh Kumar, representing Killiyoor, and P Viswanathan, who won from the Melur seat, took oath as ministers. Apart from them, 21 other legislators were also sworn in, expanding Chief Minister Vijay’s 10-member Cabinet.

Earlier on Wednesday, Congress general secretary KC Venugopal said that party chief Mallikarjun Kharge had approved the induction of Kumar and Viswanathan into the Council of Ministers.

“This is a historic occasion for us, as the Congress joins the Tamil Nadu cabinet after a long gap of 59 years!” Venugopal said on social media. “…we are confident that they will deliver on the hopes and aspirations of the people of Tamil Nadu, and will work to realise the bold vision of welfare and pro-people governance laid down by LOP [Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha] Rahul Gandhi.”

The TVK, on its electoral debut, had emerged as the single-largest party on May 4 in the Tamil Nadu Assembly elections. Vijay’s party won 108 seats in the 234-member Assembly, falling short of the majority mark of 118. Therefore, it required the support of smaller parties to form the government.

The Congress, which fought the elections in an alliance with the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, had won five seats. It was the first party to declare its support for the TVK on May 6.

Apart from the Congress, the Communist Party of India and the Communist Party of India (Marxist), each having two seats, had announced their support for the TVK. The Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi also confirmed its support for the Vijay-led party.

The TVK chief took oath as the chief minister of Tamil Nadu on May 10.

Written by Leah Thomas. Edited by Sneha.

The chief of the Jammu and Kashmir People’s Conference, Sajad Gani Lone, has been placed under house arrest on the 24th death anniversary of his father, Abdul Gani Lone, the party claimed on Thursday.

In a social media post, the People’s Conference also claimed that several senior party leaders and workers were barred from visiting the Shaheed Mazaar in Srinagar, where Abdul Gani Lone has been buried.

“Preventing us from paying homage to a leader remembered for his political vision and sacrifice is unfortunate, undemocratic and deeply insensitive,” said the party. “Such actions hurt public sentiments and weaken democratic values.”

The police have not yet responded to the party’s allegation.

We strongly condemn the house arrest of our President and MLA Handwara, @sajadlone , on the death anniversary of Shaheed Abdul Gani Lone.

We also condemn the restrictions imposed on senior leaders and workers of the party, many of whom were not allowed to visit Shaheed Mazaar… pic.twitter.com/o4rbfCIqkg

— J&K People’s Conference (@JKPCOfficial) May 21, 2026

Abdul Gani Lone was shot dead by militants on May 21, 2002, as he was leaving a Hurriyat Conference rally held to pay homage to Mirwaiz Moulvi Mohammad Farooq, who had also been killed by militants on the same day 12 years before.

Written by Neerad Pandharipande. Edited by Sneha.

The United States’ Federal Bureau of Investigation on Wednesday said that it had shut down a call centre operating in India that allegedly defrauded hundreds of elderly persons “out of millions of dollars through tech support scams”.

The law enforcement agency also said that two senior executives – 42-year-old Adam Young from Miami, Florida, and 33-year-old Harrison Gevirtz from Las Vegas, Nevada – have admitted to “turning a blind eye” to the alleged malpractice that was allegedly being enabled by their business.

The FBI stated that Young and Gevirtz had pleaded guilty to operating a business that provided services related to telecommunications, including telephone numbers, call routing services, call tracking and call forwarding services, to customers they knew were engaged in tech-support fraud schemes.

These schemes targeted persons in the US and abroad, added the federal agency.

🚨#BREAKING: #YourFBI has shut down a call center operation in India that defrauded hundreds of elderly victims here in the U.S. & abroad out of millions of dollars through tech support scams, & two senior executives who operated a business that enabled it, have just admitted to… pic.twitter.com/zlSWOspKQ7

— FBI Boston (@FBIBoston) May 20, 2026

The FBI said that Young and Gevirtz are scheduled to be sentenced on June 16.

The investigation that concluded in the executives pleading guilty had begun in 2020 and led to the conviction of five India-based telemarketing fraudsters and a former employee of their call routing company, according to the FBI.

The agency said that Indian citizens Sahil Narang, Chirag Sachdeva, Abrar Anjum and Manish Kumar were convicted of charges related to telemarketing fraud schemes based in India that “targeted and defrauded Americans of millions of dollars, many of them vulnerable to fraud schemes due to age or infirmity”.

The fifth person to be convicted was Jagmeet Singh Virk. The FBI did not specify in its statement what Virk’s role was.

It said that the investigation showed that call centres based in India utilised Young and Gervitz’s business to route their “tech fraud” scheme calls and, in some instances, advised them on methods intended to reduce complaints and prevent account terminations.

It added that the schemes used “deceptive pop-up messages” to convince computer users that their computer had been infected with viruses or malware.

“Victims were directed to call a phone number on the pop-up message or advertisement, which connected the victims to call centres, where they were persuaded to pay hundreds of dollars for unnecessary or fictitious technical-support services,” the law enforcement agency said.

In some instances, call centre agents remotely accessed victims’ computers and obtained personal and financial information, it added.

According to the FBI, Young and Gevirtz failed to report the schemes to law enforcement officials after learning about their customers’ fraud schemes between 2017 and April 2022.

Ted E Docks, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Boston division, said that what Young and Gevirtz did was “downright despicable”.

“By their own admission, they willfully profited from telemarketing and tech support scammers, here and abroad, who preyed on the elderly, exploited the vulnerable, and drained victims of their life savings and peace of mind,” Docks said.

The special agent also noted that tech support scams cost Americans $2.1 billion last year.

Written by Leah Thomas. Edited by Sneha.

A close contest led by the Trinamool Congress in West Bengal’s Rajarhat New Town constituency flipped to the Bharatiya Janata Party as a Muslim-majority booth returned an overwhelming vote for the Hindutva party, shows a Scroll analysis of the Election Commission’s official booth-wise data.

The state voted in two phases for a new assembly, on April 23 and April 29. When the results were announced on May 5, they showed that the BJP had pulled off its first victory in West Bengal, winning 207 seats in the 294-member house.

In Rajarhat New Town, a ground report by Scroll had described how the Trinamool Congress had a lead of 316 votes on May 4. But after an additional round of counting the next day, the BJP won the seat with the same margin. The Election Commission did not respond to Scroll’s queries about the need for an extra round.

Candidates of both parties accused each other of manipulating the counting process.

At the heart of the controversial poll lies Musalman Para, a locality in North Kolkata with two booths – 164 and 165. Most of the registered voters in these booths are Muslim and they vote at the same polling centre, their electoral roll shows.

On May 4 and 5, when the votes were counted, booth 164 was not counted in its scheduled round, but in a separate round at the end of the counting process. The tally in Musalman Para showed a strange divergence: while the BJP could only manage a few dozen votes in booth 165, it got an overwhelming majority in booth 164.

This runs against the communal polarisation seen in West Bengal’s voting pattern in this election and is difficult to explain, given the near-identical demography of the two booths.

Questions sent to the Election Commission did not elicit a response.

The booth not counted

The Election Commission has guidelines on how votes are to be counted on results day. Most of it is done in counting halls with at least seven tables. In every round, counting officials at each table tabulate votes from one booth.

Table one gets the electronic voting machine of booth one, table two gets the electronic voting machine of booth two, and so on, explains the poll body’s handbook for counting agents. If there are seven tables in the counting hall, every round will likely include the votes of seven booths.

Rajarhat New Town constituency has 330 booths – 320 main booths and 10 auxiliary booths. Auxiliary booths are extra polling stations set up to accommodate booths with more than 1,200 electors.

We compared the Election Commission’s round-wise results published on its website with its booth-wise data from the constituency.

We found that the sum of votes of all candidates in round one matched with the sum of votes that the candidates got from booth one to booth 20. For example, BJP candidate Piyush Kanodia got 5,461 votes in the first round of counting. This is also the number of votes he got in the first 20 booths of the constituency.

Similarly, round two of counting is a sum of votes cast in booths 21 to 40, round three has votes from the next 20 booths, and so on.

This means that counting officials were counting votes from 20 electronic voting machines in every round. For a constituency with 330 booths, the counting needed only 17 rounds – 20 electronic voting machines would have been counted in the first 16 rounds and the remaining 10 in the 17th round.

But on May 4 and May 5, the counting took place in 18 rounds.

The Election Commission’s published voting figures for round nine show that it only counted 19 electronic voting machine in that round. If it had counted all 20 electronic voting machines scheduled in this round – booth 159 to booth 177 – the sum of counted votes would have been 16,870. But the official figure is 16,214, falling short by 656 votes.

In booth 164, according to the Election Comission’s booth-level data, 656 votes were cast. This meant that the counting officials did not count this booth in round nine.

Up to the 17th round on May 4, the Trinamool Congress’s Chatterjee maintained a lead over BJP’s Kanodia. But it was a thin lead of 316 votes – he was ahead by 440 electronic voting machine votes but behind by 124 postal ballot votes, which had been counted earlier that day.

The only booth to be counted on May 5 in the 18th round had 656 votes, Election Commission data shows – the exact number of votes polled in booth 164, which was skipped in the ninth round.

Here, the BJP got 637 votes and the Trinamool Congress only five, turning the result in the BJP’s favour with a margin of 316 votes.

Musalman Para

Recent elections in Bengal have seen significant communal polarisation. In the previous Lok Sabha and assembly elections in West Bengal, only 4%-7% of the state’s Muslims have voted for the BJP. Nearly 70%-75% of the community voted for the Trinamool Congress, according to post-poll data collected by the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies.

Even Suvendu Adhikari, the BJP’s most prominent leader in West Bengal said that his victory in Nandigram constituency was because of Hindu voters. “There, the entire Muslim vote went to Trinamool Congress,” he had said. “I will work for the Hindus of Nandigram.”

But Muslim voters at booth 164 in Rajarhat New Town turned this voting pattern on its head.

Voters allotted booth 164 and 165 in this constituency both vote at the Jagadishpur FP school polling centre.

Booth 164 has 670 electors, shows its electoral roll, of which more than 88% or 591 are Muslim. The Hindutva party won 97% of the 656 votes cast at this booth. Even if every Hindu voter here voted for the BJP, the party still received 558 votes from Muslim voters. This means that more than 94% of the Muslims in booth 164 voted for the BJP – an unprecedented figure given all past data on Bengal.

Similarly, booth 165 has 654 electors, of which more than 91% or 597 are Muslim. Oddly, despite being from the same locality, voters here had voted very differently: the BJP only received 32 of the 638 votes, while the Trinamool Congress got 290 votes and Communist Party of India (Marxist) candidate and 299 votes.

It is difficult to explain how two booths in the same neighbourhood, with nearly identical religious profiles, produced such sharply different results. Nearly every voter in booth 164 backed the BJP, while voters at booth 165 did not.

The discrepancy is deepened by the counting process. Booth 164 was skipped in its scheduled round and counted separately at the end, erasing a narrow Trinamool lead. The Election Commission is yet to explain why the electronic voting machine of this booth was set aside.

In April, a video of Indian factory workers went viral. It showed the workers sewing garments while wearing white bands around their heads fitted with a camera.

The video garnered hundreds of thousands of views and was picked up by several news outlets that speculated about what use the footage of the hand movements of the workers could be put to. “Are factory workers training AI to replace themselves?” CNN asked.

The reports did not specify where the cameras had been deployed and by whom.

Scroll was able to identify the factory where workers were wearing the head-mounted devices. It is the Gurugram unit of Pearl Global Industries Limited, an apparel manufacturer with a presence across 10 countries.

“We were supposed to wear the device from 10 am to 4 pm,” one of the workers at the factory told us. “They [the executives] said that they wanted to find out what we were doing during our shifts and for how much time.”

Similar devices were used in the factories of Ken India, a textile manufacturer based in Ichalkaranji, Maharashtra, in March 2026, where they seem to have been used for a different purpose.

In a post on Linkedin, Ken India said that the hardware belonged to a start-up called Egolab.AI.

Founded in January 2026 by two teenagers in Maharashtra, Egolab.AI calls itself “India's largest first-person POV Data Aggregator”.

In its company documents, it states that it collects “high-quality, labour-sourced egocentric video footage” from factory workers using “lightweight cameras”.

Egocentric is the term used for data captured from a first-person perspective.

This data is then “aggregated, processed, and packaged into datasets” for “global AI companies building robotics, computer vision, and autonomous systems”. These companies include Tesla, Boston Dynamics and Figure AI, Egolab claims in a document.

In March, Egolab was acquired by Build Artificial Intelligence Inc., or Build AI, a firm registered in Delaware, United States. Its India arm is based in Bengaluru but its founders, most of them in their late teens or early 20s, live in San Francisco. It describes itself as the “largest egocentric data collection effort in history”.

These firms are positioning themselves to profit from the growing demand for data to train robots. According to one estimate, over the next two to three years, robotics labs will spend $1.5 billion to $50 billion (Rs 12,000 crore to Rs 4.2 lakh crore) to gather 100 million to 1 billion hours of egocentric data.

Much of the data is being collected without any safeguards, experts say.

However, Egolab claims in its company documents that it recruits between 100 and 1,000 “volunteers” in every factory it works with.

Workers who participated in the exercise at Pearl Global, however, said their consent was not obtained, either verbally or in writing.

We spoke to the head of business operations at Egolab, Arnav Kabra, and asked him specifically whether the company had obtained consent from workers at the Pearl Global factory. “We took consent to use the device and we did it in our own way,” he said.

Kabra did not elaborate on his “way” and did not respond to subsequent phone calls.

Questions emailed to Egolab and Pearl Global were unanswered at the time of publication.

The guinea pigs

Workers say that in the first week of April, two executives arrived at the Gurugram factory of Pearl Global Industries Limited. They brought white devices that had cameras and could be worn around the head.

“They distributed it to workers one by one,” said a factory worker who spoke to Scroll on the condition of anonymity. “They said that we had to wear it for one week.”

The executives were from another firm and the workers had not met them before. They told them that the device would monitor them during their working hours, when they would be sewing apparel. “We did not trust these reasons,” said a worker. “There are cameras in the factory. Why not use those?”

Most workers at Pearl Global that Scroll met came from the villages of Bihar or West Bengal. They were either Muslim, Dalit or from other backward classes. They work 12-hour shifts, from 9 am to 9 pm, between Monday and Saturday, earning between Rs 20,000 and Rs 30,000 every month.

At the end of their shifts every day, the executives collected the cameras, which were fitted with a memory card of 32 gigabytes. Every device had a unique serial number, which was jotted down next to the workers’ unique ID supplied by the factory.

Frooti was served to everyone, which made the workers wonder: why are we being fed mango juice?

On the third day, several workers grew wary of the device. “It had batteries near our temples and as they would heat up, we would feel uncomfortable,” said the first worker. “It felt like it was sucking our blood.”

A third worker was uncomfortable with how much the device could surveil. “We had to take it out before going to the toilet,” the worker said. “Moreover, we couldn’t speak to our spouse while wearing it. It could listen to our conversation. Nor could we wander around or enjoy gutkha. Sometimes I would switch off the device myself.”

The tech bros

“100 million factory workers. 100 million hours of egocentric footage.” This is what Egolab said it wanted to achieve in a company document available online, which featured a photo of the device.

It claims it will aggregate egocentric data from every major state and every sector in India by 2027, including textile, automobile, chemical, electronics, steel and fast moving consumer goods, or FMCG.

“This massive dataset becomes the backbone for AI/robotics training globally,” it added.

Egolab offered manufacturing firms a “labour efficiency report based on proprietary AI models” in return for allowing it to record their workers’ egocentric data.

Workers, it added, would feel valued for “contributing to AI advancement”, opting-in voluntarily for their data to be collected. It added that the exercise was compliant with the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023.

A sample report seen by Scroll offered a “productivity analysis” of factory workers based on the footage captured by the camera devices. It claimed that this was generated using artificial intelligence.

The report mentioned the productivity of the “best worker” and the “worst worker” based on the amount of time they spent working in the eight hours that they wore the camera. It then rounded them up for an “average productivity” score.

“Your workers are not working for 2.2 hours per day on average,” said the analysis in a sample report. “This costs you approximately Rs 33,000 per day in lost output.”

Moreover, the report gave a quantified breakdown of what workers did while not working, such as 32% of their “% of Idle” was spent in talking with coworkers. It even singled out workers: “51% of idle time is socializing…we noticed workers from different stations gathering near the wearer of CAM 02 between 2:00-3:30 PM.”

The report then compared these scores to other factories that Egolab had worked with to give a percentile score to the productivity of workers.

How the science works

Spandan Roy, an associate professor at the Robotics Research Centre at the International Institute of Information Technology, Hyderabad, told Scroll that for firms that are trying to make robots imitate human actions, egocentric data might be a cost-effective way to make it happen.

The traditional way to train robots was to recruit people and make robots replicate their actions in a computer-generated three-dimensional environment. “Another way is to record a video of humans doing a task and note down the actions – the movements of objects, the angles of joints in the human hand, the language being spoken – and use this data to train robots,” Roy explained.

In an enterprise like this, the more the data, the better the robots. “The more data you can feed, more versatility, more variety of processes, scenes, variations that you can embed into the system, the better the robot will function,” Roy added.

He said it was not surprising that firms were moving visual data from Indian factories to tech firms in the West – that is where the capital and capability for this research lies. “Earlier, industry used to rely on academia for research directions on a technology and then commercialise it,” he said. “Now the academic research papers, and most breakthroughs, are coming from Nvidia, Google, Microsoft.”

“That is because AI infrastructure – GPU, data centers – all those things are concentrated in the industry,” he added.

Enter Americans

Egolab was founded in January 2026 by Raghav Samani, 19, from Sangli and Varun Pareek, 18, from Ichalkaranji. According to their Linkedin profiles, Samani is studying business in the UK while Pareek dropped out from a US university where he studied engineering.

In March, the firm was acquired by Build Artificial Intelligence Inc., an American firm that operates the brand Build AI. It was registered in Delaware in September 2025 and is headed by Edward Xu, 19, and Jonathan Jia, 21, according to the business registry of the California secretary of state.

“This is a brutal game and we’re going to win,” Xu tweeted on the acquisition.

Samani pegged the takeover at “seven figures”, which could be between one million dollars and $9.9 million (Rs 9.5 crore to Rs 95 crore).

In a December 2025 filing, Build Artificial Intelligence described its purpose as collecting egocentric data “to accelerate the development of general purpose robots”. That month, it made one lakh hours of this data publicly accessible on Hugging Face, an open-source AI platform.

A month earlier, Xu, the chief executive officer, had tweeted that the firm “manufactures hardware” to collect egocentric data from around the world.

The CEO claims that the Build AI has $22 million (Rs 210 crore) in investments from three venture capital firms based in California, US – Abstract, Pear VC and HF0. HF0 tweeted to confirm its investment but Pear VC and Abstract are yet to list Build AI as an investee on their websites.

On April 4, 2026, Samani and Pareek registered Build AI Private Limited’s Indian arm in Bengaluru, each with a 50% stake.

Bigger picture

India’s textile industry is one of its largest employers, with nearly 4.5 crore people employed directly, many of them in rural India. At 3.9% global market share, it is the world’s sixth-largest exporter of textiles and apparel, according to the Ministry of Textiles.

It is not the only sector where efforts to collect egocentric data to build robots are underway. An Indian firm called Awign Enterprises Private Limited, a part of Japan’s Mynavi Corporation, is collecting similar data to automate household tasks, like cutting a cucumber or sorting toys. Another San Francisco-based startup, Humyn AI, is trying to build a similar business.

Astha Kapoor, a co-founder and director at Aapti Institute, a Bengaluru-based research firm that studies the intersection between technology and society, told Scroll that egocentric data is a new category that moves away from the traditional notions of personal data.

“It doesn’t matter whose hand is making a cloth because there is no immediate one-to-one mapping of whose data is [that is being used to train a model] and whom it harms,” Kapoor explained. “So it is outside the remit of personal data and quite ungoverned at the moment, even by India’s data protection law.”

Instead of thinking about the data collection through the prism of individual consent, Kapoor said, “It is necessary to think about this from the notion of collective data rights because it impacts workers as a collective”.

“There needs to be collective community muscle. Otherwise we are doing the work that is supposed to make us redundant,” she said.

The journey between collecting egocentric data and automating factory jobs is not straight nor simple. Tech firms need billions of hours of good quality data from multiple geographies. Firms like Build AI only claim to have collected a tiny portion of this.

For now, Kapoor is sceptical about a scenario where robots take over India’s textile manufacturing sector. “The scale of this business is unknown at this point,” she said. “We know that there is a bubble among AI investors in the US and we should be careful about the hype cycle.”

In Gurugram, workers at Pearl Global had sensed that there was more to the camera device than just surveillance. But it was only after the videos went viral and users left comments about automation and robotics that they realised that by participating in the exercise, they could be making themselves redundant.

Most of them, however, are sceptical about robots replacing them in the future because they believe in human skill. “It might be easy to stitch a shirt,” said one of them. “But working on a coat takes real skill. Will a robot ever be able to stitch a coat properly?”

Corrections and clarifications: In an earlier version, Spandan Roy was inaccurately described as an assistant professor with the Indian Institute of Information Technology, Hyderabad. The story has been updated to correct the error.

Religious scriptures and associated traditions have rarely been kind to women. If scriptures would have it, we would still be legally allowed to stone an “unchaste” woman to death or enslave a harem of women for sex or class one’s wife alongside cows, mares, ewes and female camels.

As evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins says, while responding to an audience member’s question on atheism and morality, “people in the 21st century believe in the equality of women and in being kind to animals”. These are things that are entirely recent, says Dawkins.

“They have very little basis in (religious) scripture. These have developed over historical time through a consensus of reasoning, sober discussion, argument, legal theory, political and moral philosophy,” said Dawkins. “These do not come from religion.”

What is unthinkable in modern society was perfectly acceptable before because religious scriptures and traditions permitted it. It is thanks to reasoned debate and deliberation that we eventually became sane enough to reinterpret problematic verses in sacred texts and reject misogynistic traditions.

Even if extreme patriarchal practices like female foeticide and dowry continue without qualm in India today, reasoned debates, leading to laws, ensured that in a civilised society these can never be considered as legitimate.

A hot topic in India occupying the minds of the legal, the rational, and the religious today is the entry of women into religious sites – temples and mosques. The rational argue that reason must be the proper test of belief, an argument that the Supreme Court agreed with in its 2018 judgement when it lifted a centuries-old ban prohibiting the entry of menstruating-age women into the Ayyappa shrine at Sabarimala Temple in Kerala. The Court held that the religious practice was illegal and unconstitutional.

Former Chief Justice of India, DY Chandrachud, who was part of the five-judge bench, underlined the fact that menstruation does not make a woman impure. The religious were unconvinced. How can courts interfere with religion and tradition? Rights of an individual cannot supersede centuries-old traditions honoured by many, they lamented. An inevitable review by the Supreme Court followed whose judgement is awaited.

J Nagarathna: amongst hindu, when there is birth and death, they don't go because there are restraints. somebody tomorrow will file a petition and say I will go next day after death

Jaising: there is custom that woman who has given birth can't go. they go during the rice feeding…

— Live Law (@LiveLawIndia) April 29, 2026

It is a fact that menstrual taboos are central to banning women between ages 10 and 50 from religious sites, including at Sabarimala. Menstruation as “ritual pollution”, as defiling, unclean or unsuited for worship, is found in some shape or form in all major religions and traditions associated with them – Judaism, Buddhism, Islam, Christianity and Hinduism. Scores of restrictions on menstruating women, making her a pariah for most of her life, belie the egalitarianism and morality professed in religion. It is easy to control a woman if much of her life is spent in worrying about bodily etiquette.

The larger issue, therefore, is this. Assuming that egalitarianism between the sexes is the hallmark of a civilised democracy, would blanket bans by the judiciary or legislature on misogynistic religion-based practices help women? Or should it be a process based on thought-out deliberations within civil society over time? Or both? Tough questions that have no simple answers.

It could be argued that so long as bans are motivated by the rights of the individual, they may produce the desirable outcome. The operable word is autonomy or the right to make decisions without external interference. Let us take two examples. One, already discussed, is the refusal of entry to women in religious sites. Two, is the observance of the veil, hijab or ghoonghat. Both are examples of the control of women and must be resisted. But the approach will need to be different for each.

In the case of the hijab, and the ghoonghat, there is no dispute that it is patriarchal, as I have argued before. Yet, despite the political stigma over a woman in hijab and societal coercion of a woman who wants to reject hijab, the ultimate decision is hers. She has control over what she wants or does not want to wear. Mandating or banning dress codes is an insult to her autonomy and dignity.

Muslim women in Iran and Muslim women in India seem to be fighting different battles – the former rejecting hijab mandates by the state, the latter rejecting hijab bans by courts and the state, but, in truth, they are both fighting the same battle. A battle for rightful autonomy.

“There must have been a reason why my mother gave birth to me, right? It couldn’t have been to just slog it out in the kitchen and scrub the bathrooms.”@Johanna_Deeksha on the anger and despair of young Muslim women, one year after Karnataka’s hijab ban https://t.co/k1IsBbFuLW

— Supriya Sharma (@sharmasupriya) January 11, 2023

This is why sartorial bans and mandates have often resulted in unintended consequences – women have dropped out of education, when forced to remove their hijab or, worse, given up their life fighting against hijab. Paternalistic bans and mandates are unlikely to reduce the practice. The recent withdrawal of the three-year-old hijab ban in Karnataka is likely a political stunt, but it could benefit Muslim women in education and attune them to decide for themselves.

On the other hand, barring menstruating-age women from entering temples and mosques is not the same as banning (or forcing) her from observing religious garb. As it stands, either women are completely prohibited from entering religious places, such as Hindu temples, or refused access from the main entrance and packed into smaller segregated spaces, as in mosques.

Menstrual taboos and segregation of sexes emerge from the scriptural logic that men and women may be equal in the realm of religion but are different by virtue of their biology. Because they are built different, their roles are different and, therefore, they cannot be treated as equals.

Experts disagree with this logic: patriarchy has nothing to do with anatomy. Fact is, humans show a more extreme pattern of male domination of females than is characteristic of most other primates despite the same biological dichotomy. As the legal scholar Catharine MacKinnon writes, “Women are constrained to be men’s social inferiors; they are not men’s biological inferiors… It is an ordinal hierarchy. This power division, not our bodies, is what makes women a political group.”

Barring women from entering religious sites because she is menstruating or anatomically different from a man, is discrimination over an aspect of life that is beyond the woman’s control. She is barred simply because she menstruates and has a vagina. She has little control over a natural process that scriptures and traditions have reduced to being impure and sinful. That is discrimination.

Dignity and freedom are innate to us. Without altering the foundational nature of religious scripture, centuries-old traditions have been reinterpreted through consensus and nuance without losing sight of individual autonomy. If the status of women over the world has improved and if men have become more egalitarian, it is because these deliberations have ensured that the basic principle of equality trumps dogma.

Raheel Dhattiwala is a sociologist.

Parveena Khatun, 45, runs a tea stall on Baba Gangnath Marg in Delhi’s Munirka. The shortage of cooking gas cylinders has affected Parveena’s income.

When supplies fell in March, she kept her stall closed for a week but without the income, survival became difficult. Then, she built a brick stove (chulha), bought coal and gathered firewood. In Delhi’s intense summer, working throughout the day on a chulha is dangerous.

Temperatures around the chulha remain high, leading to thermal discomfort and heat stress, and the set-up leaves Parveena gasping for breath at the end of the day. Her hands have burn marks – she’s never worked on a chulha before.

“Yesterday afternoon,” said Parveena, who moved to Delhi from Bihar’s Siwan in 2002, “the heat was so intense that between the smoke and the heat, I started feeling dizzy. I sat under a tree for a while and washed myself with cold water; my whole body was restless.” She was speaking of April 23, when Delhi saw a maximum temperature of 43 degrees celsius.

The Commission for Air Quality Management issued an order on March 13, 2026, giving temporary permission to burn diesel and biomass (wood, dung cakes, and coal) and waste-derived fuel in Delhi-NCR, which has been extended until May 13, 2026.

Solid fuel like firewood, cow dung and dry grass are highly damaging to health, as IndiaSpend reported in April 2019. Cooking on traditional chulhas leads to incomplete combustion, and emission of particles such as suspended particulate matter, carbon monoxide, polyaromatic hydrocarbons, polyorganic matter and formaldehyde. All these are harmful for respiratory health.

Women and younger children who spend the most time at home are the most vulnerable, we had reported. Exposure to air pollution during pregnancy leads to outcomes such as low birth weight and stillbirth.

In 2022, India saw 113 deaths per 100,000 people due to household air pollution, according to the Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change report 2025. For the estimated population of 1.46 billion that year, this works out to 1.65 million deaths from indoor pollution. Household air pollution also contributes to 22%-52% of ambient air quality, studies suggest.

And this is before the effects of heat are considered.

Each time a woman cooks over a chulha in this heat, her body is fighting two battles at once – trying to cool down while also breathing in harmful smoke, explains Vidhya Venugopal, professor of occupational and environmental health at the Sri Ramachandra Institute of Higher Education and Research, Chennai. “It is a killer combination. This is far more dangerous than either problem alone and can quickly lead to exhaustion, dizziness, and breathing difficulties. For women working long hours outdoors, this combination can become a serious health emergency.”

A May 2025 study in Geo Health shows that risk of premature mortality during hot and polluted days was higher than normal days. “The compound increase in PM2.5 and temperature intensity could elevate the risk of fatality,” the study said.

Another study published the same month in Environment International, which analysed 3.6 million deaths across 10 Indian cities between 2008 and 2019, found that air pollution becomes much more dangerous as temperatures rise.

Shortage, black market

The war in West Asia has led to stalled shipments, and India depends on imports for 60% of its liquefied petroleum gas consumption. Domestic production rose 25%, and is being directed to household consumers, after which hospitals and educational institutions are being prioritised.

Since the first week of April, reports of migrant workers returning home from Delhi-National Capital Region began surfacing, with a large number of labourers seen heading back from Delhi’s railway stations.

By May 8, the government said, commercial LPG availability stood at 70% of pre-crisis levels. But many roadside eateries depend on the black market for their cooking gas needs.

India’s LPG consumption fell 16% this April, compared to April 2025, government data released by the Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell show.

“At retail shops, gas is being sold for Rs 350-400 per kg,” Parveena said. “If I buy Rs 100 worth of gas for Rs 400, I would have to raise the price of a cup of tea from Rs 10 to Rs 40. Who would buy it?"

Prices for commercial cylinders, which stood at Rs 1,768.5 for 19 kg on March 1, rose to Rs 3,071 earlier this month.

“I have a domestic connection, but the cylinder ran out 15 days ago. I am using the chulha at both my stall and home,” said Parveena, whose elder daughter is studying for a bachelor’s degree and the younger just finished school. “I have booked a refill, but it hasn’t arrived yet.”

Reena Kumari, 30, living in the Coolie Camp of Vasant Vihar, was cooking on a chulha in the bright afternoon sun. The family does not have a gas connection, and earlier got the 5-kg cylinder refilled, but now shops have stopped refilling them. “Even where gas is available, it’s costing Rs 400 for one kg. I cannot afford it.

“I have two small children who get very distressed by the smoke and start crying. But I have to cook; I won’t let the children starve.” Kumari’s husband is 34, and works as a cook in a hotel.

"Every time someone cooks over wood or coal in a closed kitchen, they breathe in smoke that is far more toxic than outdoor city pollution,” said Venugopal. “In the short term, this causes burning eyes, coughing, and headaches – but over the years, it quietly damages the lungs and heart, sometimes leading to serious diseases like COPD [chronic obstructive pulmonary disease] or even lung cancer. The tragedy is that for many families, there is simply no other option.”

The government has asked states to improve access to free-trade LPG cylinders, which hold 5 kg gas and have lower documentation needs. These are typically meant for consumers such as migrant workers and students. The government has doubled allocations to states and oil companies are organising awareness campaigns. Retail prices of refills have also increased.

The shift back to polluting cookstoves

Sanghamitra Patra, 28, who came to Delhi from Odisha in search of employment in 2022, runs Chandini dhaba in Munirka. Since the crisis began, she has been running it using two wood stoves. “While cooking on the chulha, the flames spread far. It feels like being thrown into a furnace,” she says.

Her family does not have an LPG connection. Earlier, she used to buy refills by paying delivery persons a little extra but now, a refill costs up to Rs 4,000 on the black market. “My two children go to school; I can’t even make lunch for them. After school, they come here to the dhaba to eat."

“I had never cooked on a chulha before. Now I only make dal, roti, and rice because it takes much longer to cook on the chulha,” she said. “The dhaba gets filled with smoke, so many customers turn back. My income has decreased by half. It has become difficult to pay the rent for the shop and the house.”

“Women, especially those in low socio-economic status, are the ones standing over the fire for hours every day, so they breathe in the most smoke and feel the most heat,” Venugopal said. “When you add poverty, poor nutrition, limited healthcare, and no real choice of fuel, the body simply has fewer resources to cope and recover. These women are not weak, but they are being exposed to hazards – an impossible situation with no support."

On April 24, the Union Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas stated in a press conference that the supply of domestic LPG remains smooth. Meanwhile, at an Indane gas agency in Masoodpur, near the Jai Hind Camp slum, long queues were seen on April 23 at 4 p.m. Ramveer, a gas mechanic at the agency, explained that the crowds were there to resolve persistent technical issues with their bookings. When asked about the 5 kg cylinders, he said they are not seeing many new applications.

We reached out to the ministry for comment on the challenges faced by migrant workers and concerns over the affordability of the 5 kg cylinders. We will update this story when we receive a response.

Double burden of pollution

Urban slums suffer from a double burden of pollution. They are exposed to the high ambient particulate matter of cities and the household air pollution from unclean cooking fuels. According to a survey report by CEEW, 45% of urban slum households in India use traditional fuel like dung cakes and firewood for cooking.

"Migrant workers were never adequately covered by clean fuel access even under conditions of good LPG supply,” said Kalpana Balakrishnan, professor and dean (research) at SRIHER. “The crisis has heightened the need for expanding clean energy access to all vulnerable populations, including the urban poor, who often face risks greater than the rural poor.

“In lower socio-economic status households, cooking expenses account for more than 30% of their limited income. Any financial shock forces them to look for alternatives,” Balakrishnan added. “However, India has made significant progress in clean cooking, especially through the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana. Despite this, it has been challenging to bear the costs of increasing usage and to reach the bottom 10% of the poorest population. Now, the rising number of people reverting to solid fuels has made the situation even more serious."

"Those who can afford to switch to solar should be encouraged, freeing up LPG for the most vulnerable,” she added. “Cities like Delhi can rebalance energy use through redesigned, smarter subsidy structures and lead the transition to renewable cooking nationwide."

Shivam Bhardwaj is an independent journalist based in Bareilly.

This article first appeared on IndiaSpend, a data-driven and public-interest journalism non-profit.

The Indian rupee slumped to a record low of 96.9 against the United States dollar amid elevated global oil prices and economic headwinds caused by the conflict in West Asia. Its value improved marginally to 96.8 by the end of the trade session. However, it had fallen 30 paise from the previous low of 96.5 recorded on Tuesday.

Wednesday was the eighth consecutive trade session in ⁠which the rupee had lost its value. The Indian rupee has been the worst-performing Asian currency in 2026, with a 6% loss in its value ⁠since the conflict began on February ​28. Read on.

The Delhi High Court set aside a sessions court order that had stayed ab first information report being filed against commentator Abhijit Iyer-Mitra for his social media posts in which he made sexually abusive remarks about the women employees of news outlet Newslaundry.

Noting that the sessions court order did not provide any reasons for its decision, the High Court bench remanded the matter back to the judge and asked him to pass a fresh and reasoned order within four weeks. Read on.

Kerala’s new United Democratic Front government said that it was scrapping the Silver Line semi-high-speed railway project planned by the previous Left administration. The proposed 530-km route was to connect Thiruvananthapuram in the south and Kasaragod in the north, reducing travel time to less than four hours from about 12 hours.

Chief Minister VD Satheesan said that the Congress-led government is not against high-speed railway projects, but was scrapping the “K-Rail” because it was “an environmental disaster and not economically viable”. He also said that the cases against the persons who protested the project would be withdrawn. Read on.

The Supreme Court dismissed a public interest litigation demanding that caste enumeration be excluded from the 2027 Census. The bench said that the matter lies within the government’s domain and that the courts cannot intervene.

The government must know how many people are backward and how many need welfare, the bench said, adding that it is a “matter of policy”.

The petitioner had contended that there was no justification for the government to collect such a large amount of data on caste. “There are endless possibilities of politicians and corporate entities misusing the caste data,” the petitioner had argued. Read on.

The Delhi High Court dismissed a public interest litigation demanding that Aam Aadmi Party leaders Arvind Kejriwal, Manish Sisodia and Durgesh Pathak be disqualified from contesting elections after a judge initiated criminal contempt proceedings against them. The petitioner alleged that the contempt proceedings showed that the AAP leaders did not hold allegiance to the Constitution.

The bench said that the contentions were “absolutely baseless and bereft of any consideration”. The court also rejected the petitioner’s plea to direct the Election Commission to de-register the AAP. The poll panel does not have the power to do so barring in exceptional circumstances, the bench said. Read on.

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The Delhi High Court on Wednesday dismissed a public interest litigation demanding that Aam Aadmi Party leaders Arvind Kejriwal, Manish Sisodia and Durgesh Pathak be disqualified from contesting elections in view of a judge having initiated criminal contempt proceedings against them, Live Law reported.

The petitioner contended that a May 14 order by Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma initiating contempt action showed that the AAP leaders did not hold allegiance to the Constitution.

A division bench of Chief Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyay and Justice Tejas Karia said that the petition was “highly misconceived”, adding that the contention was “absolutely baseless and bereft of any consideration,” Live Law reported.

The petitioner also demanded that the Election Commission be directed to de-register the AAP. The High Court rejected this prayer as well, holding that the poll panel does not have the power to review its order granting registration to a political party, the legal news outlet reported.

The court noted that the Election Commission can only de-register a party in three exceptional circumstances: if the registration was found to have been obtained through fraud, if the party changes its nomenclature in a manner that does not conform with the Representation of the People Act or if the party states before the Election Commission that it does not have faith in the Constitution.

The petition alleged that Sharma’s order showed that the AAP leaders had acted against the Constitution. However, the court said that this contention was “too far-fetched” and that there was nothing on record to show that the AAP had stated that it does not have faith in the Constitution, Live Law reported.

Sharma had initiated contempt proceedings against Kejriwal, Sisodia and others for allegedly defaming and vilifying her on social media in connection with the Delhi liquor policy case.

The development came after the AAP leaders decided in April to boycott the proceedings before Sharma in the petition filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation against a trial court order discharging them and several others in the case.

On April 20, Sharma rejected a petition filed by the leaders demanding that she recuse herself from hearing the case. Their petition raised concerns about “perceived ideological proximity”, referring to her attending an event of an organisation linked to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh.

The RSS is the parent organisation of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party.

Edited by Sara Varghese.

Taiwan’s de facto diplomatic mission in India on Wednesday condemned the recent “publications/comments made by certain individuals”, referring to an election billboard put up by a Taiwanese ward chief that had alleged anti-India messaging.

The billboard featured a “no” symbol over an inverted Indian flag and a brown-skinned man wearing a turban, triggering a social media furore with several users alleging that the poster reflected racist attitudes.

It had been put up by Lee Hung-yi, the ward chief of Gangming borough in Kaohsiung’s Siaogang, who is contesting as an independent candidate in the city council election scheduled to be held in November.

Taiwan’s de facto diplomatic mission in New Delhi clarified that the “biased remarks do not represent our stance” adding that they “deeply regret and strongly condemn any form of prejudice, racism and discrimination”.

“Taiwan cherishes the values of democracy, inclusivity, and diversity, and support people to people exchanges between Taiwan and India,” the statement said.

After backlash, Lee had told CNA on May 13 that he was not opposed to migrant workers as a whole, but was specifically against migrant workers from India. He contended that a policy to open up Taiwan to Indian migrant workers lacked the necessary supporting measures and management regulations.

On April 9, Minister of Labor Hung Sun-han said that Taiwan could initially bring in 1,000 Indian workers to work in the fields of manufacturing, agriculture and caregiving. Taipei and New Delhi were discussing matters related to administrative procedures, document verification and health check.

In April 2025, India’s Ministry of External Affairs said that there were 5,804 Indians in Taiwan, of whom 5,303 were Non-Resident Indians and 501 were Persons of Indian Origin.

Written by Sara Varghese. Edited by Nachiket Deuskar.

The Supreme Court on Wednesday dismissed a public interest litigation demanding that caste enumeration be kept out of the Census 2027 exercise, Bar and Bench reported.

A bench comprising Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justices Joymala Bagchi and Vipul Pancholi said that the matter lies within the government’s domain and that the courts cannot intervene.

“Any government of the day must know how many people are backward and how many need welfare,” The Hindu quoted Kant as saying. “This is a matter of policy.”

The petitioner contended that there was no justification for collecting such a large amount of data on caste. “There are endless possibilities of politicians and corporate entities misusing the caste data,” he argued, according to The Hindu.

However, the court said that there was no reason for it to intervene, and went on to dismiss the petition.

The Census 2027 will take place in two phases – house listing from April 2026 to September 2026, and population enumeration in February 2027.

The last decennial census exercise was held in 2011. In 2020, India was set to begin the first phase of the exercise – in which housing data is collected – but it had to be delayed as the Covid-19 pandemic hit.

India had last conducted an exercise to count the population of all caste groups in 1931. In independent India, census reports have published data noting the population of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes but not other caste groups.

In April 2025, the Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs approved the enumeration of caste in the next census.

The Opposition had been demanding a nationwide caste census. The proponents of such an exercise argue that it will help identify the true population of the country’s Other Backward Classes and other castes, in turn paving the way for policies such as expanded quotas in jobs and education.

Edited by Sara Varghese.

Also read: ‘The Caste Con Census’: Anand Teltumbde argues that a nationwide caste census cannot annihilate it

Kerala Chief Minister VD Satheesan on Wednesday said that the United Democratic Front government in the state was scrapping the SilverLine semi-high-speed railway project, which had been announced by the previous Left Democratic Front government

The proposed project was envisaged to cover a 530-km stretch between Thiruvananthapuram in the south and Kasaragod in the north, reducing travel time from around 12 to 14 hours at present to under four hours, The News Minute reported.

It was to be developed by K-Rail, a joint venture of the Kerala government and the Ministry of Railways.

On Wednesday, Satheeshan also announced the withdrawal of cases registered against those who protested the project, adding that the government would approach the judiciary to facilitate the process.

The chief minister highlighted that the land acquired for the project was never de-notified, which had meant that people were unable to sell or pledge their own property, The Hindu reported.

“We are not against high-speed rail projects,” the newspaper quoted him as saying. “We opposed K-Rail because it was an environmental disaster and not economically viable.”

He said the government was “not against a rail project which will not affect the State environmentally or financially”.

The project has been halted since 2022 following pending approvals from the Union government and protests by the Opposition in the state.

Critics warned that the project could displace thousands of families, degrade the fragile local environment, worsen extreme climate events and plunge the already heavily indebted state economy into a severe financial crisis.

The LDF-government had in January 2022 estimated the cost of the project at Rs 63,941 crore, The News Minute reported.

Edited by Neerad Pandharipande

Also read: In Kerala, development projects cleared amid lockdown threaten the state’s ecological balance

Gerrymandering is the act of redrawing the boundaries of political constituencies in a way that gives the ruling party a clear advantage over its rivals. The term, which originated in the United States, entered mainstream political discourse in India last week when the Modi government convened a special session of Parliament to push for early delimitation in the name of implementing women’s reservation.

The bills were defeated. But the threat of gerrymandering is real, as we know from the case of Assam.

The state saw a delimitation exercise in 2023 which altered political boundaries in a way that led to absurd outcomes: one panchayat, for instance, is now represented by two MPs and three MLAs.

The larger impact was that Muslim representation in the state shrunk with the Bharatiya Janata Party acquiring a permanent edge over its rivals.

In this episode of True Story, Scroll’s Executive Editor Supriya Sharma and reporter Rokibuz Zaman pore over constituency maps in Assam to explain what changed and how.

The Communist Party of India (Marxist–Leninist) Liberation on Tuesday said it has moved the Calcutta High Court against the decision of the Bharatiya Janata Party government in West Bengal to invoke the state’s 1950 Animal Slaughter Control Act to “impose severe punitive restrictions on ritual sacrifice of livestock”.

The Suvendu Adhikari-led government, in one of its first steps after coming to power in the state on May 4, said that the provisions of the Animal Slaughter Control Act will be strictly enforced.

The order came two weeks before Bakrid on May 27. Bakrid, also known as Eid-al-Adha, is a Muslim festival that commemorates the spirit of sacrifice. The festival is traditionally marked by the slaughtering of goats.

The provisions make it mandatory for persons to obtain a certificate before slaughtering animals such as buffaloes, cows and bulls. It also barred public slaughter of the animals and said officials carrying out inspections to enforce the order should not be obstructed.

The certificate, which can be issued by the chairperson of a municipal body or a sarpanch, along with a government veterinary doctor, must confirm that the animals are suitable for slaughter. This document must also confirm that the animal is over 14 years old and no longer useful for work or breeding, or is permanently incapacitated because of age, injury, deformity or an incurable disease.

The order did not provide exemptions for slaughter for religious, medicinal or research purposes, unlike earlier notices.

On Tuesday, the Communist Party of India (Marxist–Leninist) Liberation described the tightening of the Animal Slaughter Control Act as “an assault” on the religious freedom of the Muslim community and “on the livelihood of farmers engaged in cattle trade [who are mostly from the Hindu community]”.

The party also contended that this was an assault on the “freedom of citizens to eat according to their choice and on the culinary diversity of West Bengal”.

The petition filed by the party in court is set to come up for hearing before a bench of Chief Justice Sujoy Paul and Justice Partha Sarathi Sen, Live Law reported.

Written by Leah Thomas. Edited by Neerad Pandharipande.

The Delhi High Court on Wednesday set aside a sessions court order that had stayed the filing of a first information report against commentator Abhijit Iyer-Mitra for his social media posts in which he made sexually abusive remarks about the women employees of news outlet Newslaundry, reported Bar and Bench.

Noting that the sessions court order stayed the filing of the FIR without giving any reasons, Justice Girish Kathpalia remanded the matter back to the judge there while asking him to pass a fresh and reasoned order.

“This kind of stay does not convince,” the legal news portal quoted Kathpalia as saying. “…I want to understand what went in his [sessions judge’s] mind to stay the order. I will send it back to pass a reasoned order.”

The High Court asked the Newslaundry journalists and Iyer-Mitra to appear before the sessions court on May 22. Kathpalia further directed the sessions court to decide the case within four weeks.

Newslaundry’s Managing Editor Manisha Pande and other women journalists working for the news outlet had approached a magistrate court, stating that Iyer-Mitra had repeatedly used derogatory language and slurs to target them.

On April 23, the magistrate court said that Iyer-Mitra could be charged under Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita sections pertaining to sexual harassment and insulting the modesty of a woman for the contents of the tweets.

The judge also observed that the “police investigation is necessary as the offence has been committed in cyber space”. He ordered the registration of an FIR against Iyer-Mitra for offences under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita pertaining to sexual harassment and word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman.

The journalists have separately also approached the Delhi High Court with a defamation suit against Iyer-Mitra, seeking a public apology and Rs 2 crore in damages.

Edited by Neerad Pandharipande.

The Bombay High Court on Wednesday quashed two cases against Maharashtra’s former Director General of Police Sanjay Pandey and a lawyer named Shekhar Jagtap pertaining to an alleged conspiracy during the Maha Vikas Aghadi’s tenure to “file false cases” against the Bharatiya Janata Party’s Devendra Fadnavis and the Shiv Sena’s Eknath Shinde, Live Law reported.

A division bench of Justices Shree Chandrashekhar and Justice Suman Shyam pronounced the verdict. The detailed order is yet to be made public.

A businessman named Sanjay Punamiya has alleged that Pandey had reopened a criminal case against him that had been closed in 2016. He claimed that Jagtap forged documents and appeared as a special public prosecutor in the case, although he did not have an official appointment letter, according to Live Law.

The criminal case had also reportedly named former Mumbai Police Commissioner Parambir Singh. The businessman and the former Mumbai Police chief had been accused of extortion.

In August 2024, a first information report was registered against Pandey, Assistant Commissioner of Police Sardar Patil and Inspector Manohar Patil, accusing them of pressuring Punamiya to make allegations against Fadnavis and Shinde, based on which a case could be filed against the two leaders.

Several judges of the Bombay High Court had recused themselves from hearing Pandey’s petition seeking to quash the cases, Live Law reported. After the Supreme Court’s intervention, a special bench comprising Chandrashekhar and Shyam was set up.

Edited by Sneha.

During a routine anticipatory bail hearing late in April, the Madras High Court referred to transgender persons as “children of god”.

The phrase appears compassionate, an attempt to restore dignity to a marginalised community. But this language is neither neutral nor benign. It belongs to a longer history of paternalistic recognition in India, most notably captured in the term “Harijan”, popularised by Mohandas Gandhi to describe those oppressed by caste-based untouchability.

Like “children of god”, the word “Harijan” sought to confer moral worth through spiritual elevation. And like it, the term was ultimately rejected by anti-caste thinkers for replacing structural critique with sentimental moralism.

Indian courts have, when confronted with marginalised identities, reached for emotional language on more than one occasion. The Supreme Court’s 2014 landmark ruling in NALSA v Union of India, which affirmed the fundamental rights of transgender persons, opened by observing that they are often “treated as untouchables”.

This analogy to caste, while rhetorically powerful, was not carried through into the reasoning of the judgment. Caste was reduced to a metaphor and the judgment’s analysis proceeded on an isolated understanding of gender, leaving the intersection of caste and gender unexamined.

The Madras High Court’s invocation of “children of God” is a shift in register – from social analogy to theological metaphor – but not a shift in method. In both instances, emotion substitutes for analysis. Even the judgment’s language – at points referring to “transgenders” rather than transgender persons – reflects this tendency to reduce individuals to categories.

The court acknowledged social exclusion and directed the state to pursue rehabilitation. But the term remained undefined, leaving the intervention broad, paternalistic and untethered to the case at hand.

Theology in a secular courtroom

The order invokes the “Creator”, only to insist that “it is no part of the judicial function to sit in theological judgment”. But the disclaimer is too late. Once dignity is grounded in divine authorship, the basis of rights subtly shifts from constitutional guarantee to moral theology.

A constitutional court derives its authority from the Constitution of India. Its task is not to affirm that all are equal before god, but to ensure equality before the law. When courts invoke theology without translating it into constitutional reasoning, they replace analytical clarity with platitudes.

To describe a marginalised group as “children of god” is to mark them out as requiring reassurance – as if their inclusion in the category of the human must be specially affirmed. If everyone is, in some sense, a child of god, the phrase merely signals that this group, unlike others, needs to be reminded of it.

Bail to sermon

The court was hearing an application for anticipatory bail by a YouTuber accused of spreading misinformation about the self-immolation of a transgender person.

By the court’s own reasoning, the matter was effectively resolved early on. The petitioner had merely retransmitted content already in circulation. On that basis, the court indicated its inclination to grant bail.

Ordinarily, that would have been the end of the matter. Instead, the judgment shifts from adjudication to exposition – moving away from the facts of the case and into a wide-ranging reflection on transgender lives and state responsibility.

It became a leap from a specific criminal proceeding to population-level governance. The court went on to direct the state to formulate a comprehensive rehabilitation scheme at the taluk level – an intervention framed in terms of integration and inclusion.

The immediate context of the case concerned a particular and highly visible segment of the transgender community – those who survive through street-based livelihoods, including begging and sex work.

Yet this specific figure is universalised into “the transgender,” and the call for rehabilitation is built around that imagined subject.

This is a familiar move. A stigmatised and hyper-visible group comes to stand in for the whole, and “rehabilitation” becomes the preferred vocabulary of response. What appears as benevolent intervention thus risks reproducing a narrow and paternalistic understanding of the community it seeks to address.

Beyond the courtroom

Taken together, the judgment reveals a broader pattern. Faced with marginalisation, courts reach for the language of empathy – analogy in NALSA v Union of India, theology in the present order, and generalisation in both. But empathy, in these instances, does not translate into a sustained engagement with caste, labour, gender identity or the limits of judicial power.

Instead, the phrase “children of god” is amplified as the essence of the judgment. The discipline of constitutional reasoning recedes and is replaced by the ease of sentiment.

Terms like Harijan once promised dignity through spiritual recognition. The rejection of these terms was a refusal to accept sentiment in place of justice. The reappearance of similar language in a different context should give us pause.

The temptation for courts to enter the domain of moral or theological reflection is not new. It is visible in the long and troubled history of the “essential practices” doctrine, where judges have repeatedly assumed the role of interpreters of religion rather than adjudicators of rights.

The result is doctrinal confusion – an accumulation of inconsistencies that courts themselves later struggle to untangle.

A constitutional court need not be uncompassionate. But compassion cannot substitute for reasoning. Nor can it displace the language of rights through which the Constitution recognises individuals as equal participants in public life.

For when rights are recast as compassion, recognition slips too easily into control.

Sumit Baudh is the author of the forthcoming Routledge monograph Law at the Intersection of Caste, Class and Sex.

At dawn in Gujarat’s Banni grasslands, the earth smells faintly of salt and wet dung. Buffaloes shuffle through silver grass under a pale orange sky while tiny black bees hover over flowering shrubs that survived the harsh summer. Herders of the Maldhari community move slowly with their animals, reading the land like memory: where water remained after winter, where grasses flowered early, where acacia trees are likely to bloom.

Hundreds of kilometres away in Rajasthan’s Thar desert, Raika camel herders walk across sandy commons dotted with khejri and ber shrubs. Their camels browse lightly, never staying too long in one place. After the first monsoon showers, wild flowers erupt briefly across the desert floor, drawing bees in clouds of gold and brown.

These scenes rarely enter conversations about conservation. Yet across India, pastoralist communities are the country’s quietest custodians of wild pollinators.

On World Bee Day, observed on May 20 every year, discussions usually focus on honey production, commercial beekeeping or pesticide-driven bee decline. But scientists and grassroots organisations are increasingly recognising another reality: in addition to forest and farms, wild bees also depends on living pastoral landscapes; grasslands, grazing commons, scrub forests and migratory routes maintained by herding communities for centuries.

Landscape management

India hosts more than 700 species of wild bees, including the giant rock bee, Indian honey bee, stingless bees, carpenter bee and bumblebee. Unlike managed honey bees, these pollinators survive in uncultivated habitats: hedgerows, forest edges, native grasses, flowering shrubs and open commons. Many pastoral landscapes provide exactly these conditions.

Traditional grazing systems create landscapes where grazing, trampling and seasonal movement prevent ecological stagnation and encourage plant diversity. Diverse plants mean diverse flowering cycles. And diverse flowers sustain wild pollinators across seasons. Pastoralism, in this sense, is beyond livestock rearing. It is landscape management.

In western Rajasthan, commons known as orans and gochars historically supported both livestock and biodiversity. Studies on Rajasthan’s grazing commons show that community-managed grazing systems once allowed landscapes to regenerate through seasonal resting periods and rotational access. These landscapes are often dismissed as wastelands, but they are ecologically productive spaces. For pollinators, grasslands can be as important as forests.

Ecological web

The relationship between livestock and bees may appear unlikely at first. But healthy grazing systems support pollinators in several ways.

Animal dung enriches soil microbes and improves nutrient cycling, allowing native grasses and flowering herbs to regenerate. Moderate grazing prevents aggressive shrubs from overtaking open habitats, helping sunlight reach flowering plants. Seasonal mobility prevents overgrazing and gives landscapes time to recover.

Most importantly, pastoralism often protects uncultivated spaces that industrial agriculture eliminates.

Wild bees do not survive on crops alone. They need nesting grounds, native vegetation, flowering weeds and forest edges. In monoculture landscapes saturated with chemicals, these habitats disappear rapidly.

Pastoral landscapes retain them.

In Gujarat’s Banni grasslands, among Asia’s largest tropical grassland ecosystems, Maldhari pastoralists have evolved mobile grazing systems adapted to droughts and erratic rainfall. In Uttarakhand, Van Gujjar pastoralists moving through forest corridors depend on flowering trees such as sal, jamun and semal, the same species that sustain bees and birds.

In Maharashtra, Dhangar shepherds traditionally graze across semi-arid grasslands rich in seasonal wildflowers. In Karnataka, Kuruba pastoralists maintain mixed-use forest landscapes that support both livestock and pollinator diversity.

Commons under threat

Yet these ecosystems are vanishing.

Over the past few decades, India’s grazing commons have shrunk due to industrial projects, fencing, mining, monoculture plantations, highways and urban expansion. Pastoralists increasingly describe losing their “right to roam”.

This fragmentation affects not just livelihoods, but ecological continuity itself.

When commons disappear, landscapes become simplified. Diverse flowering plants are replaced by monocultures. Seasonal grazing cycles collapse. Pollinator habitats shrink.

The consequences are already visible.

Globally, pollinators are declining due to habitat loss, pesticides, climate change and intensive agriculture. India has no comprehensive national assessment of wild bee populations yet, but researchers increasingly warn about declining pollinator diversity in heavily industrialised agricultural zones. Ironically, policies continue to treat grasslands as “degraded” lands.

Across many states, commons are diverted for solar parks, plantations or infrastructure projects because they are officially classified as “wastelands”. Conservation policies too sometimes exclude pastoralists in the name of protecting forests and wildlife, despite evidence that mobile grazing systems can coexist with biodiversity conservation.

This policy ignorance has deep colonial roots. British forest governance often viewed pastoralists as encroachers rather than ecological stewards. That mindset still persists in parts of India’s conservation bureaucracy.

Rethinking conservation policy

There are signs of change, though progress remains uneven.

The Forest Rights Act, 2006, opened pathways for recognising community rights over grazing landscapes. Pastoralist groups across Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Telangana are also demanding legal recognition of migratory routes, seasonal grazing access and commons governance.

Rajasthan has experimented with decentralised commons governance, while several civil society organisations are documenting how pastoral systems contribute to biodiversity conservation and climate resilience.

Environmentalists argue that pollinator conservation policies must move beyond bee boxes and commercial apiculture. Protecting pollinators requires protecting landscapes, especially grasslands and commons that fall outside traditional forest conservation frameworks.

This is particularly important in the era of climate change. Pastoral systems evolved precisely to cope with uncertainty shifting rainfall, droughts and seasonal variability. Mobility allows both livestock and landscapes to adapt. In contrast, industrial systems dependent on uniformity often collapse under ecological stress.

As evening falls over Banni, bees retreat into cracks of bark and dry earth while buffaloes gather near temporary settlements. The Maldharis prepare tea. Somewhere in the dark, bells from grazing animals echo across the grassland.

These sounds belong to an older ecological rhythm, one in which humans, animals, grasses and pollinators move together across shared landscapes.

Saving bees, then, may require looking beyond apiaries and honey bottles. It may require protecting the pastoral communities whose movements still keep India’s living landscapes open, and flowering.

For centuries, pastoralists have moved livestock across India’s landscapes, carrying with them the ecological knowledge that keeps these ecosystems alive. If India hopes to protect its wild pollinators in an age of climate breakdown and ecological collapse, it may first need to recognise pastoralism as a living model of coexistence.

World Bee Day is observed every year on May 20 to raise global awareness about the critical role bees and other pollinators play in sustaining ecosystems, ensuring food security and supporting biodiversity.

Abhijit Mohanty is a Bhubaneswar-based independent journalist who reports on sustainable food, livelihood, women’s leadership and climate change with a special focus on Adivasi and marginalised Indian communities.

The Kolkata Municipal Corporation has sent notices to 17 addresses allegedly linked to Trinamool Congress general secretary Abhishek Banerjee for purported unauthorised construction, The Indian Express reported on Wednesday.

However, the TMC claimed that the notices and media reports about them were “false, fabricated and devoid of any credibility”.

The notices came days after a first information report and a police complaint were filed against Banerjee. They also come against the backdrop of the Bharatiya Janata Party defeating the TMC in the Assembly elections on May 4.

The Kolkata Municipal Corporation is administered by the TMC.

On Monday, Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari said that he had sought details of properties linked to TMC leaders, including Banerjee, from the Municipal Affairs Department and the Kolkata Municipal Corporation commissioner, The Hindu reported.

In the notices, the Kolkata Municipal Corporation has reportedly sought documents related to building plan approvals and clarification on whether permissions were taken for additional construction, along with details about installations such as lifts and escalators, according to The Indian Express.

It further directed the demolition of unauthorised construction within seven days if the owners do not show cause for why such action should not be taken.

The civic body added that it would carry out demolitions and recover the cost from the owners if no satisfactory response is received, reported The Indian Express.

The notices were sent to several residential and organisational properties, including those allegedly linked to Banerjee’s parents and his company, Leaps and Bounds Private Limited, according to the newspaper.

Adhikari on Monday said that the first person he had sought details of from the municipal corporation was the TMC’s Raju Naskar, who he claimed had 18 properties.

“Second is Kasba’s Sona Pappu, who has 24 properties,” the newspaper quoted him as saying. “Third is bhatija [nephew], Abhishek Banerjee. There are 14 properties registered in the name of the Leaps and Bounds company, four in his own name, and six in the name of his father.”

The chief minister added that the fourth person he had asked for details about was the son of TMC MLA Javed Ahmed Khan. He had 90 properties, Adhikari alleged.

‘Notice completely false’: TMC

The TMC stated that it had seen media reports and posts related to the Kolkata Municipal Corporation notices to Banerjee and other party leaders, adding that it had been leaked “unofficially” by the BJP.

“The notice and the media coverage over the last few days are completely false, fabricated and devoid of any credibility,” the party stated.

It added: “We urge the media fraternity to exercise sensitivity & responsibility instead of promoting such fabricated posts and stories. Any false reporting or misleading posts will be dealt with appropriately in accordance with the provisions of law before the competent court.”

On social media, TMC leader Saket Gokhale retweeted a list shared by Rahul Shivshankar, editorial affairs director at CNN-News18, about the properties allegedly linked to Banerjee that had been served notices.

Gokhale said that the document was a “complete hoax and inaccurate” and that it had nothing to do with Banerjee.

“Which begs the question – what’s the ‘source’?” the TMC leader said, adding that Shivshankar had “got it from the BJP and posted it as ordered”.

Let’s counter the claims of this chimpanzee step-by-step:

👉 The “document” he’s shared is a complete hoax and inaccurate. Has nothing to do with Abhishek Banerjee

👉 Which begs the question - what’s the “source”? Clearly, this chomu got it from the BJP & posted it as ordered.… https://t.co/TlX75teVB2

— Saket Gokhale (@SaketGokhale) May 20, 2026

Previous action against Banerjee

The alleged notices were served days after the police on May 15 filed an FIR against Banerjee for allegedly provocative speeches he made during campaigning for the Assembly elections, including alleged threats directed at Union Home Minister Amit Shah.

The FIR was based on a complaint filed by a man identified as Rajib Sarkar on May 5, a day after the election results were announced, at the Baguiati Police Station. His complaint alleged that Banerjee made inflammatory remarks during campaign events held between April 27 and May 3.

Two days later, former TMC minister Giasuddin Molla filed a police complaint against Banerjee, alleging threats and intimidation. He also named Mithun Kumar Dey, the former sub-divisional police officer in the 24 Parganas’ Diamond Harbour subdivision, in the complaint.

On Monday, Banerjee moved the Calcutta High Court seeking quashing of the FIR filed against him for allegedly making inflammatory remarks during campaigning, The Hindu reported.

Edited by Sneha.

The Central Bureau of Investigation on Tuesday arrested one more person accused of the murder of an aide to West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari, PTI quoted officials as saying.

The officials said that Vinay Rai, a resident of Ghazipur in Uttar Pradesh, was arrested in Varanasi. Rai, who is the fifth person arrested for the killing, will be produced before a court in Kolkata.

The aide, Chandranath Rath, had been shot dead near Kolkata on May 6. The CBI had taken over the investigation into his murder after a request from the state government.

Rai’s arrest on Tuesday came a day after the CBI arrested another key accused, Raj Kumar Singh alias Raj Singh, from Muzaffarnagar in Uttar Pradesh. Earlier this month, three others were arrested in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh in connection with Rath’s killing.

These men were identified as Vishal Srivastava, a resident of Bihar’s Buxar district, Mayank Mishra and Vicky Maurya. Mishra and Maurya are from Uttar Pradesh, officials said.

Rath was killed amid widespread political violence in West Bengal after the Bharatiya Janata Party defeated the Trinamool Congress in the Assembly elections.

He was travelling in a car to his home in Barasat when assailants on motorbikes intercepted the vehicle in the Madhyamgram area at about 10.20 pm. One of the suspects reportedly approached the car and fired three bullets at close range, it had been reported at the time.

Rath, who was seated next to the driver, sustained several bullet injuries and was declared dead after being taken to hospital. His driver, Buddhadeb, was seriously injured.

The motive for the murder was unclear.

Rath had worked with Adhikari for several years and handled political coordination and organisational work. He had reportedly been associated with the BJP leader since 2018 and later became his executive assistant after Adhikari became Leader of the Opposition in West Bengal.

Adhikari, who became the chief minister on May 9, was not with Rath at the time of the attack. The BJP leader alleged that it was a “pre-planned murder”.

The Trinamool Congress had condemned Rath’s killing and expressed grief over the deaths of party workers in separate incidents of violence across the state. The party alleged that “BJP-backed miscreants” had been involved in post-poll unrest and called for a court-monitored CBI probe into the killing of Rath.

Edited by Sneha.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed to examine a plea challenging the preventive detention of former journalist Satyam Verma under the National Security Act in connection with the Noida workers’ protest violence case, but refused to grant him interim relief, Live Law reported.

A bench of Justices BV Nagarathna and Ujjal Bhuyan issued a notice to the Uttar Pradesh government and the Union government on a petition filed by Verma’s wife challenging the detention order, Bar and Bench reported.

“For now, we can’t grant you any interim relief because the validity of the detention order has to be seen,” Live Law quoted Nagarathna as having told the petitioner.

The protest had been held on April 13.

The 60-year-old former journalist from Lucknow was among two persons detained under the National Security Act on May 13. The Act allows for long periods of detention without trial up to a year.

Verma and 25-year-old Aakriti Chaudhary are members of the Mazdoor Bigul Dasta, a workers’ organisation.

The police alleged that the role played by the two was “significant in instigating violence, arson and creating chaos” during the protest. Verma and Chaudhary “provoked” persons in different areas to “disturb public order”, the police alleged.

The police have also alleged that Verma received money from foreign accounts to incite the violence, Bar and Bench reported.

The detention order further accused him of using “leftist” writings and literature to encourage younger people to join rebel organisations, according to Live Law.

The order also claimed that books containing quotes by Mao Zedong and other material described as “objectionable” and “anti-democratic” were recovered from Verma’s office.

His wife’s petition argued that Verma was not present during the protests and had been targeted for being the publisher and writer of the Mazdoor Bigul newspaper, administering its Facebook page and for being associated with the Revolutionary Workers’ Party of India.

She also argued that the case was not only about Verma’s allegedly illegal arrest, but also about a “concerted deployment of arbitrary, dragnet and fabricated criminal proceedings to silence the labour class and its democratic allies”, The Hindu reported.

The petition before the Supreme Court also questioned the clubbing of three first information reports against him.

Verma had been picked up from a publisher’s office in Lucknow and was allegedly asked to delete an article about workers because it could “stir disturbance”, Bar and Bench reported.

He reportedly agreed to take it down while maintaining that it was only about workers’ rights.

During the hearing, Additional Solicitor General KM Nataraj told the bench that a habeas corpus petition concerning Verma’s detention was already pending before the Allahabad High Court.

The Supreme Court is expected to hear the matter again in July.

The protests

On April 13, about 40,000 to 45,000 workers from several industrial units had gathered in parts of the city to press long-standing demands that their salaries be increased. The protests came amid increasing gas prices because of the supply disruption caused by the conflict in West Asia.

The protests had turned violent. Videos widely shared on social media showed some protesters throwing stones and vandalising property, as security personnel tried to bring the situation under control.

On April 14, more than 350 persons had been arrested in connection with the violence.

Witnesses had alleged that the police personnel deployed to contain the violence on April 13 had beaten up the protesters.

On April 16, a video surfaced online showing police personnel assaulting women. The video was shared on social media platforms by several users, including the Uttar Pradesh Congress, who alleged that it showed police personnel in Noida lathi-charging and manhandling women workers on the day of wage hike protests.

The police commissionerate in Gautam Buddha Nagar district denied this. It said that “prima facie, the video appears to be morphed or AI-generated and does not seem to be from Noida, but rather from some other location.”

However, eyewitnesses, who did not want to be identified because of the fear of facing backlash from the authorities, told Scroll that the video accurately captured the scene they had witnessed.

Scroll also used geolocation analysis and matched the video against a press photo to establish that the location was indeed Block A and Block B of Noida’s Sector 6. Scroll visited the spot and spoke to several people who had seen the police assault. Questions sent to Commissioner of Police Laxmi Singh at the time did not elicit a response.

Edited by Nachiket Deuskar.

Also read:

• Noida and beyond: India’s workers are being shortchanged. They deserve a fair deal

• Fact check: Despite official denial, viral video showing police beating women workers is from Noida

• Watch: Called ‘Naxal’, thrashed by Noida police for asking for wage hikes

The Commission for Air Quality Management on Tuesday imposed Stage 1 restrictions under the Graded Response Action Plan in Delhi and the adjoining National Capital Region after the air quality slipped into the “poor” category.

GRAP is a set of incremental anti-pollution measures that are triggered to prevent further worsening of air quality once it reaches a certain threshold in the Delhi-NCR region.

The first stage involves measures such as mechanical sweeping of roads and sprinkling water on them to keep dust from rising. It also bans some kinds of construction and demolition activities.

The Commission for Air Quality Management said that in its meeting on Tuesday it reviewed the air quality scenario in the region and observed that Delhi’s Air Quality Index had shown an increasing trend and was recorded at 208, which is in the “poor” category.

The statutory body noted that the AQI is likely to remain in the “poor” category in the coming days.

As of 6.05 pm on Tuesday, Delhi recorded an average AQI of 206, showed the Sameer application, which provides hourly updates published by the Central Pollution Control Board.

In Uttar Pradesh, while Noida recorded a “poor” AQI of 238 and Ghaziabad of 248, Greater Noida was in the “very poor” category at 304, the application showed.

In Haryana, Gurugram recorded an AQI of 188 and Faridabad 196, both in the “moderate” category.

An index value between 0 and 50 indicates “good” air quality, between 51 and 100 indicates “satisfactory” air quality and between 101 and 200 indicates “moderate” air quality. As the index value increases further, air quality deteriorates. A value of 201 and 300 means “poor” air quality, while between 301 and 400 indicates “very poor” air.

Between 401 and 450 indicates “severe” air pollution, while anything above the 450 threshold is termed “severe plus”.

Stage 1 of GRAP is activated when the AQI is in the “poor” category. The second, third and fourth stages are activated when the AQI crosses the “very poor”, “severe” and “severe plus” categories.

IMD issues yellow alert for heatwave in Delhi

The India Meteorological Department on Tuesday issued a “yellow” alert for heatwave conditions in isolated parts of Delhi until May 25, with the maximum temperature expected to hover about 44 degrees Celsius.

A yellow alert stands for “be updated”.

The weather agency said that isolated areas are likely to experience heatwave-like conditions during the day.

The IMD said that temperatures indicate that the level of heat is generally tolerable for the public but may pose a moderate health risk for vulnerable groups such as infants and elderly people with chronic illnesses.

It advised people to avoid heat exposure, wear light-coloured, loose-fitting cotton clothing and cover their heads with a cloth, hat or umbrella. It also recommended drinking sufficient water frequently and keeping fire extinguishers at home and in vehicles.

Written by Sara Varghese. Edited by Nachiket Deuskar.

Also read:

• Delhi’s failure to act against the biggest source of its air pollution – vehicles

• India’s car-first cities should prioritise walking to help tackle smog

• Air pollution can increase risk of motor neurone diseases, worsen outcomes

The Trinamool Congress’ candidate in West Bengal’s Falta announced that he has withdrawn from repolling there, two days ahead of voting. Jahangir Khan said he was doing so for the constituency’s “development and the public good”, citing a special package announced by the Bharatiya Janata Party government.

The TMC said that the withdrawal of the candidature was Khan’s personal decision and not that of the party.

On May 4, the Bharatiya Janata Party defeated the TMC in the state polls, ending the 15-year rule of the Mamata Banerjee-led party. While voting in Falta was held on April 29, the Election Commission on May 2 ordered repolling in the constituency, alleging that the democratic process had been subverted there. Repolling will be held on May 21 and the votes will be counted on May 24. Read on.

Activist Umar Khalid was denied interim bail in the 2020 Delhi riots conspiracy case. A Delhi court held that the grounds cited in his plea were unreasonable. Khalid had sought 15 days’ interim bail to attend a Chehlum ritual marking 40 days since his uncle’s death and to assist his mother, who is scheduled to undergo surgery on June 2.

The court said that merely the fact that Khalid and others accused in the matter had earlier been granted interim bail without breaching conditions did not mean such relief could be granted each time it was sought. The bench also said his father and sister could take care of his mother, noting the prosecution’s submission that it was a minor surgery.

He was denied bail by the Supreme Court in January. However, on Monday another bench of the Supreme Court criticised the January verdict, saying that it ignored legal precedent. Read on.

The Supreme Court refused to recall its directions issued in November that stray dogs picked up by the municipal authorities from public places must not be released into the same area after they are vaccinated or sterilised. The directions had said that the dogs must be placed in shelters.

Dismissing a batch of petitions seeking modifications to the directives, the bench said that the state cannot remain a “passive spectator” while citizens face the threat of dog attacks in public areas. If officials fail to implement the orders, they will be liable for contempt action, the court said. Read on.

The Indian rupee weakened to a record low of 96.5 against the United States dollar amid elevated global oil prices and economic headwinds caused by the conflict in West Asia. Its value fell 18 paise during the day, from the previous all-time low of 96.3 reached on Monday.

Tuesday was the seventh consecutive trade session in ⁠which the rupee had lost its value.

The Indian rupee has been the worst-performing Asian currency in 2026, with a 6% loss in its value ⁠since the conflict began on February ​28. Read on.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s refusal to answer a question from a Norwegian journalist during a joint press meet with his Norwegian counterpart sparked a debate online about the media’s role in democracy. Helle Lyng Svendsen, a reporter in Oslo, faced a barrage of criticism online after she asked why Modi had declined to take questions from the media.

On social media, Bharatiya Janata Party supporters claimed that Svendsen had acted inappropriately and some others were more intemperate in their criticism. Some accused her of being a spy.

But Modi’s opponents saw this as just another instance of the prime minister’s evasions. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said that Modi “running from a few questions” had undermined the country’s image. Read on.

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“My phone has not stopped ringing since the LPG crisis began,” said Priyadarshan Sahasrabuddhe of Pune, founder of Vaayu Mitra, a decentralised, waste-to-energy biogas model. The set-up promotes the use of home-generated biogas from wet-waste, over the typical LPG supply that homes use for cooking.

The recent West Asia conflict led to an energy crisis in India when the Strait of Hormuz – where most of India’s imported LPG comes through – was closed. Hospitality industry, food processing companies and households in the country rushed to switch to alternatives, many switching back to traditional wood and cow-dung cake-fuelled open stoves, and induction stoves.

Soon after, long queues of people waiting in line for an LPG cylinder became a common sight in almost all cities of India with many paying as high as Rs 2,500 to Rs 5,000 for a Rs 950 LPG cylinder, many being sold in the black market.

Sahasrabuddhe has been LPG-free for the past seven years and his company has helped restaurants, cafeterias, canteens and families in Pune and nearby cities reduce their dependence on LPG. He has installed the biogas system for around 440 customers since 2015.

The 405 currently active systems of the total installed manage 1,119 tonnes of waste annually, and the biogas produced in the process has saved around 3,000 LPG cylinders of 14 kg, worth more than Rs 20 lakh in a decade. Sahasrabuddhe himself has saved around Rs 70,000 in the last seven years doing all his cooking on biogas.

The recent situation has brought in new challenges for him. “Due to the acute shortage of cooking fuel, an ice-cream manufacturer asked me to install Vaayu overnight as his production had come to a halt. Overnight installation is not possible as we do a complete waste-audit to gauge the needs of the clients before installing the set-up. I am trying to meet the growing demand but it is difficult to do it on such short notice,” he said.

India imports 60% of its LPG consumption, most of which, about 90%, comes through the Strait of Hormuz. It relies on the imported LPG gas for industrial use in the hospitality industry as well as for domestic use.

In 2025 (April to December) India imported 18,796 thousand metric tonnes of LPG for domestic use.

There is a sharp rise in LPG import due to government schemes to promote clean (smokeless) fuel as opposed to traditional wood and charcoal burning stoves, and other factors like growing hospitality industry and a growing population. The imports rose from 18,514 in 2023-’24 (April to March) to 20,667 in 2024-’25 (April to March), according to the Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell, an attached office under India’s Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, established in April 2002.

Energy security in times of crisis

A residential township in Pune’s Hinjawadi has installed the Vaayu Mitra in 26 buildings across two phases in 2025 and 2024. About 98 flats in this township have taken the biogas connection through a metred pipeline to a dedicated stove in their kitchens.

Suneel Kulkarni, representative of the developer group of the township, Megapolis, said that when the idea was brought to him, he and his partners were a little sceptical about it as they had seen organic waste composters attracting rodents, flies and other insects, emitting foul smell and making the whole ambience unhygienic. Before installing it in the buildings, they had a small trial setup.

“After seeing the results of the trial we realised that it added value for the residents. Many residents opted for the biogas pipeline from the 30 kg digester that is installed on the terrace of every building. Now, they are definitely feeling more secure in this time of crisis,” he said.

Another user, Angad Patwardhan, a Pune-based actor and voice artist who has been using the digester since March 2022 has been LPG-free since the past four years and says his family saved an average of 12 cylinders per year. They just keep a spare for emergencies.

“We are a family of five and our house help staff of two have another independent kitchen. Both the kitchens have been exclusively running on biogas, for the last five years. The 10 kg digester we have, runs on wet-waste that we purchase from our SWaCH (a waste management workers’ cooperative) staff, at Rs 300 a month. This way we are able to manage 3.5 tonnes of wet waste per year from a single household, and have managed to reduce our dependence on imported fuel,” he said.

Practical challenges

Patwardhan pointed out that while the set-up was practically free of cost and in the long run proved profitable monetarily, the installation cost of Rs 100,000 was needed to get things going and they had to ensure proper servicing of the digester twice a year, amounting to a recurring cost of Rs 3,000 per year.

“When I thought of installing Vaayu, the idea was to do my bit for the environment and money was not an issue. But for many people it is,” he said.

The upfront cost, Kulkarni also said, was a challenge that prevented real estate developers from installing the Vaayu Mitra.

“Developers need to install wet-waste management systems by law, and in the case of Organic Waste Composters, the hefty electricity bill was something the residents had to collectively bear. But Vaayu’s set up is zero-energy and does not have additional costs, saving almost Rs 2,000 per flat every month on electricity bills. Though the system pays for itself in the long-run the installation cost of Rs 10,000 per flat is something that builders do not want to pay out of their pockets,” he said.

He told Mongabay-India that the expense for installing Vaayu set up in each phase of the township reached around Rs 80-85 lakhs (₹8-8.5 million), something that deters many developers from using this system instead of traditional organic waste composters.

Patwardhan added that like the government pays subsidies for installation of solar panels and the Pune Municipal Corporate provides a 5% rebate on property tax for composting and installing biogas systems, installation of these biogas set ups should be made more lucrative with government subsidies to make them financially viable for large-scale adoption.

Patwardhan also shared the social stigma around waste, saying that some neighbours falsely complained about the smell when he had a waste-digester in his house. “After this I moved it onto the terrace to keep it out of sight. But we need to change our attitude towards waste to adopt these solutions,” he added. He further said that in the initial months there was also some technical issue that led to the digester “vomiting” but the Vaayu team fixed it when he raised the issue.

However, many argue that due to its low calorific value (4,500 to 5,000 kcal/m3), biogas leads to slow cooking and the task of managing the community digesters often deters citizens from switching to biogas.

Vitthal Kauthale, Chief Thematic Programme Executive at Bharatiya Agro Industries Foundation (BAIF), Urali Kanchan in Pune told Mongabay-India told that their 300 cubic metre biogas plant supplies gas to around 85 staff households in the campus, and the families save up to four LPG cylinders per year.

But highlighting the challenges of the fuel he said, “While biogas holds promise, factors like proper feeding, temperature, sunlight, distance and moisture content are a few challenges that need to be ironed out before expecting large-scale adoption. In our campus we have kept three storage tanks to ensure that all the homes receive the supply evenly because the plant is more than a kilometre away and a pipeline from there would have reduced the efficiency by large.”

Solar cookers, biopellet stoves

The recent gas crisis has underscored the need for more decentralised, green-energy solutions for cooking like solar cookers and smokeless biopellets.

Vishakha Chandhere, founder of Orjabox, an organisation working to promote solar cookers and other green-energy solutions for cooking, told Mongabay-India that the company has demonstrated renewable energy cooking techniques to over three thousand people in the last five years motivating them to use clean energy in parallel with LPG and cook at least one meal with renewable energy.

Organisations like The Gram Gaurav Prathisthan, a charitable trust working with rural communities in Saswad, Pune, are using solar cookers and biochar together to cook food.

She added that the recent LPG shortage has led to an overwhelming demand for solar cookers and training demos in both rural and urban areas from individuals, caterers and community kitchens.

“Unlike two months ago when I would have to convince people to use solar cookers and list out its benefits like it being cost-effective in the long run, health aspects etc, they are now approaching me!” she said. “The argument that I used to get was that LPG is easily accessible and they can control the flame and it cooks the food faster. These are all true but once people start seeing the practicality of the solution – that it saves a recurring expense, no constant monitoring needed, and tastier food, they do not want to go back to LPG.”

Ketaki Kokil, Director, Ecosense Appliances Pvt Ltd, working to promote the use of bio-pellets (made of agricultural waste) for cooking instead of traditional charcoal of fuelwood told Mongabay-India that till February of 2026, they were able to sell around three to five commercial stoves a month but since March 2026, soon after the Strait of Hormuz closed, they have sold over 300 stoves for commercial purposes to various cafes, major hotel chains, caterers and canteens.

“We have supplied our commercial stoves in many parts of Maharashtra, Gujarat, and Kerala, and cities like Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Coonoor, Kolkata, and Delhi. As these improved cookstoves need pellets to operate, we were able to connect with local pellet manufacturers from these regions to supply to our customer,” she said.

In March itself, the team sold more than 1,000 domestic stoves to individual customers from across India. They are also getting inquiries from small and medium enterprises for domestic stoves for their workforce as a way to continue operations, which are being affected as migrant workers return home from cities due to the gas crisis.

Chandhere added that inventions in the solar cooking models like tube-solar cookers which can cook even when its partially cloudy, parabolic cookers can now cook as fast as LPG are few factors that are lucrative to buyers but lack of government support like subsidies and that of research and innovation has prevented the expansion of solar cookers.

Kauthale of BAIF says green energy setups for cooking, such as solar cookers, biogas or bio-pellets, should be integrated into our lifestyle instead of treating them as back-up solutions to be used in times of crisis.

“We cannot stop using LPG altogether. But we need to create an ecosystem that favours this shift to green cooking solutions through awareness, behavioural change and government support,” he said.

This article was first published on Mongabay.