Counterview

By Devidas Tuljapurkar  The documentary film " The Great Indian Illusion " by the young and promising filmmaker Varun Sukhraj arrives at a critical historical moment. The Indian banking sector is increasingly being projected as a spectacular success story through carefully curated balance-sheet figures, rising profits, and declining non-performing assets (NPAs). Yet beneath this glossy narrative lies a far more disturbing reality of deepening inequalities, growing corporate concentration, privatisation pressures, and the systematic marginalisation of ordinary bank employees, rural customers, and small borrowers. The film deserves appreciation because it courageously attempts to dismantle this manufactured narrative and bring before the public the structural contradictions of India's neoliberal banking model .

By Vikas Meshram  In Indian cinema, there are some directors who place greater importance on social truth than commercial success. Anubhav Sinha is one of them. His films "Article 15," "Mulk," and "Thappad" have commented on social issues and held up a mirror to the collective conscience of our society. Sinha, who was once a commercial filmmaker, turned toward social themes over the past nine years, and this shift gave him a distinct identity. In today's entertainment-driven marketplace, making a socially conscious film is like swimming against the current. His new film, "Assi," belongs to this very tradition.

By Ravi Ranjan*  In contemporary Hindi poetry, few voices have explored the philosophical and creative possibilities of women's experience as powerfully as Savita Singh. Across collections such as "Svapna Samay" (Dream Time), Aapne Jaisa Jeevan, and "Prem Bhi Ek Yatana" Hai, she has developed a poetic world in which woman is not merely a subject of suffering or social commentary but a creator of knowledge, meaning, and alternative realities.

By A Representative   An industry-sponsored report , "From Wheat Straw to Wardrobes: Fashioning a new fibre future", based on a pilot project has claimed that India’s agricultural waste can be transformed into sustainable fashion fabrics, offering a viable alternative to tree-based fibres. Project Latvus, led by Canopy and Laudes Foundation with global fashion brands including H&M Group, C&A, and Reformation, says, it successfully produced lyocell garments from wheat straw residues collected in Punjab and Haryana.

By Fr Cedric Prakash SJ  The editorial of the latest issue of the Economic and Political Weekly (Vol. 61, No. 22, 30 May 2026) carries a compelling and incisive title: “The Great Nicobar Project: A Holistic Folly.” Its central argument is unequivocal: the project's claims of strategic significance are questionable, while the environmental damage it will inflict is certain.

By A Representative  Jan Swasthya Abhiyan India (JSAI) organized a national conference on occupational and environmental health at Gandhi Bhavan in Bhopal on World Environment Day, bringing together representatives of labour organizations, public health experts, environmental activists, and community members from across the country to discuss pressing concerns related to workers’ health, environmental degradation, climate change, and public health. Participants from Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Delhi, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Manipur, Assam, Odisha, Gujarat, Maharashtra, and Rajasthan attended the conference, which featured four thematic sessions on occupational health, environmental health, climate change, and water and global warming. The conference stressed that occupational health and safety continue to be major public health concerns in India, particularly for workers employed in industries, mining, construction, domestic work, and other informal s...