Unemployment in India has reached a 45-year high, according to leaked official jobs figures that the government had delayed publishing with just a few months to go until a general election. With jobs creation one of the key pledges that delivered prime minister Narendra Modi to power in 2014, the report that the unemployment rate stands at 6.1 per cent… Read more »
The second headline that has recently dominated international news about India is the ban on the entry of women from the ages of 10 – 50 from entering the Sabarimala Hindu Temple in the southern state of Kerala. In September of 2018, a five-judge panel struck down an allegedly centuries-old, custom-based law. This action led to widespread, violent protests by… Read more »
I’ll be the first to admit that I’m no expert on Indian media, art, cultural values, or cultural foundations, beyond knowing that “Indian” is far too general a category for serious analysis. Like many Americans, I’m familiar with what Bollywood is, and occasionally see headlines about the most high-level legal changes in the subcontinent. However, I can recognize general trends… Read more »
In stark contrast to the United States, India has generally had a rather strong labor movement throughout its modern history, beginning prior to its fight for independence from the British Empire. The first instances of revolutionary trade unionism taking action in the subcontinent occurred in 1918 in Bombay, where 120,000 workers went on strike. Just two years later, a strike… Read more »
NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Thursday relaxed stringent conditions imposed by the state government for getting licences for dance bars, paving the way for their opening in Mumbai and other cities in Maharashtra. The top court said that there cannot be total prohibition on dance bars by imposing unreasonable conditions as no licence has been granted by state since 2005… Read more »
The global streaming giant joins Fox’s Hotstar service, Viacom’s Voot, SonyLiv and other platforms in signing a “self-regulatory code” — a bid to avoid a potential censorship crackdown in the booming Indian market. Netflix and rival streaming platforms in India, including Fox’s Hotstar, SonyLiv, Viacom’s Voot and several local services, have signed and agreed to follow a new industry code… Read more »
Millions of people have taken to the waters at the confluence of India’s sacred Ganges and Yamuna rivers as part of the Kumbh Mela festival – humanity’s largest gathering. Millions of people have taken to the waters at the confluence of India’s sacred Ganges and Yamuna rivers as part of the Kumbh Mela festival – humanity’s largest gathering. Officials told… Read more »
For two days, millions of workers are going on a strike against the Narendra Modi government in India. Up to 10 central trade unions, comprising around 150 million employees of banks, public transport units, factories, and government companies, are protesting what they describe as the “anti-labour” policies of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government. Their complaints include a painful… Read more »
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Life was disrupted in Kerala Tuesday during the 48-hour general strike called by trade unions and in Karnataka, the protest evoked mixed response while by and large it was business as usual in the three other southern states. No untoward incidents have been reported from any of the southern states, according to officials. The two-day nationwide strike was called… Read more »
NEW DELHI (Reuters) – Indian police on Monday charged 10 people, including a prominent former student organizer, with sedition, in a case that activists say is really about freedom of speech. Kanhaiya Kumar, a former head of the students’ union at New Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University, was arrested in 2016 at a rally to commemorate the anniversary of the execution… Read more »