Michael Thomas

Update: In the face of severe criticism, prime minister Modi has now reportedly asked for the press statement to be withdrawn.

India’s female labour force participation rate is among the lowest in the world, and one reason for this is that employers just don’t want to hire women.

India is facing a serious mental health crisis, with an estimated 56 million people suffering from depression and 38 million from anxiety disorders, according to a report by the World Health Organisation. Mental distress is believed to be a key reason why one student commits suicide every hour in the country.

More people die of tuberculosis (TB) in India than anywhere else in the world.

Put together the names of some high-end real estate properties across India and you start to notice a pattern: Dream Acres, Oyster Grande, Dolce Vita, Fontaine Bleau, Wellington Estate, Forest Edge, Silicon Oasis, White Meadows.

Rats scooting around drains, lanes, and households is a common sight in India. Even government offices for that matter are not immune to the pestilence. But over 300,000 rats in the headquarters of one of the country’s richest states? That’s something.

Sometime in June 2014, Indian construction worker Harjit Masih lay motionless, playing dead among 39 still warm bodies. Lying beside him were his massacred compatriots. They had all been shot by militants of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in Mosul, Iraq. Receiving a bullet to his leg, Masih lived to tell the tale.

For all the government’s efforts to discourage smoking, it remains a common sight across India. What’s worse is that the deadly habit can begin incredibly early, affecting children as young as 10 years old.

Indian youth can’t escape the tough reality of their lives, even on the internet.

Karan Jani has come a long way from his hometown in Vadodara, Gujarat.

In his long and spectacular career as the world’s most iconic physicist, Stephen Hawking wrote a lot about black holes. He discovered that they emit electromagnetic radiation (which later became known as Hawking Radiation) and proved theoretically that they could eventually disappear for good.

In January 2001, the pioneering British physicist Stephen Hawking, who died today (March 14) at the age of 76, visited India.

Thousands of protesting Indian farmers have flooded India’s financial capital, Mumbai.

Over a decade after NGO Common Clause filed a petition seeking the right for terminally-ill patients “to die with dignity,” India’s supreme court has decreed that passive euthanasia is legally valid across the country.

In 1868, the Royal Commonwealth Society (RCS) was established in London to promote knowledge about the British empire’s colonies abroad. Many of its members were civil servants, doctors, soldiers, and even missionaries who worked in India. Over the years, they donated to its library their diaries, letters, and artifacts, which revealed much about what it was like to live on the other side of the world.

Many Indians generally shudder at the very thought of interacting with the police—such is their reputation, built on decades of brutality and intimidation. And there’s no group more distrustful of cops than India’s women, particularly the victims of sexual assault.

In a country where female labour force participation remains abysmally low, even the few women who do persevere in their careers aren’t fairly rewarded.

For those comfortable with reading and writing in English, it can be hard to imagine what it’s like to experience a world of limited content. And yet, that’s just what millions of Indians face online every day.

On March 05, the 90th Academy Awards remembered two legendary Bollywood actors.

Spring is no spring in India if it isn’t heralded by a nationwide burst of colours. And today (March 02) is that day.

India’s most famously colourful festival has a dark side.

Ever since the brutal 2012 gangrape in New Delhi made headlines around the world, Indian newspapers have stepped up their coverage of crimes against women. So much so that now a number of other important issues related to sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) get overshadowed, according to new research findings.

There could be one silver lining to the Punjab National Bank (PNB) scam cloud: the revival of Mumbai’s iconic record store, Rhythm House, which shut shop in 2016 and was later acquired by Nirav Modi, the man at the centre of the storm.

In a country where textbooks are best-sellers, a movement is trying to bring literature and poetry to the streets—but not in book form.