Counterview

By A Representative   The Gig and Platform Services Workers Union (GIPSWU) on May 16 organised a temporary nationwide shutdown of app-based services from 12 pm to 5 pm to protest rising fuel prices and inadequate wages. The strike, which comes after a Rs 3 per litre petrol and diesel price hike announced on Friday, has impacted food delivery, ride-hailing and quick-commerce platforms including Swiggy, Zomato, Uber, Ola and Blinkit.

By Vidya Bhushan Rawat*  A Preview of " India Economic and Social Justice Report – 2025 " by Prof K S Chalam *** In an era defined by indices and indicators measuring everything from economic growth to cultural well-being, a dedicated report on economic and social justice is not merely useful — it is essential. India's political class has lately been consumed by the rhetoric of a " Caste Census ," yet the caste question remains perpetually sidetracked, invoked only when it poses no real threat to the existing social and political order. For decades, experts have argued either that India's problems are purely social or purely economic, as if the two could be neatly separated. This false dichotomy has served mainly to inflame rival constituencies while obscuring the truth: that socio-economic and cultural injustices are deeply interdependent and cannot be understood in isolation.

By Jag Jivan   A joint submission by environmental research platform Mapping Malnad and climate coalition SAPACC has raised serious objections to the Karnataka government’s draft climate adaptation and mitigation strategy for the water sector, alleging that several major water infrastructure projects are being “mislabelled” as climate adaptation measures despite worsening ecological and hydrological stress across the state.  The 17-page response , submitted on May 11 to the Government of Karnataka, critiques the State Specific Action Plan on Climate Change (SSAPCC) prepared under the National Water Mission framework and calls for a complete overhaul of the state’s water governance approach.

By Saksham, Dr. Mansee Bal Bhargava  Accelerated urbanization across India is exerting unprecedented pressure on water resources. Cities are expanding beyond administrative boundaries, groundwater is being over-pumped, surface water is increasingly polluted, and lakes and rivers are being encroached upon. Most Indian cities, historically agglomerations of villages, were traditionally built around sophisticated water-harvesting infrastructures — from cascading tanks and stepwells to stormwater channels and rooftop rainwater harvesting systems — that allowed communities to manage and conserve water sustainably over generations.

By Rajkumar Sinha*     Life on Earth has unfolded over hundreds of millions of years, with countless species emerging and disappearing in the natural cycle of evolution. Extinction has always been part of this process, driven by volcanic eruptions, asteroid impacts, and climatic shifts. 

By A Representative   As the 79th World Health Assembly prepares to convene in Geneva from 18 to 23 May 2026, a growing chorus of gender equality and global health activists is urging health ministers from 194 countries to counter rising anti-rights and anti-gender backlash and to accelerate progress towards the indivisible goals of gender equality and Health for All. The call comes amid a flurry of advocacy events at the Women Deliver Conference 2026 in Narrm, Melbourne, where the SHE & Rights Media Awards 2026 also celebrated journalists from Africa and the Asia Pacific for their reporting on health, gender and development justice.