Counterview

Counterview News   Official quick estimates say SME-heavy sectors drove growth in tier 2 and 3 cities, but the figures remain unverified amid wide apprehensions over the reliability of Government of India data — and a one-month festive-season bump cannot be generalised as a durable industrial recovery. 

By Prof. K.S. Chalam*  More than sixty books on Subhas Chandra Bose exist in English alone, and many more in Hindi, Bengali and other languages. Much of this literature is hagiography, and some of it has been bent to serve political ends. Vidya Bhushan Rawat's new study ,  "Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, INA and India's Freedom Movement",  tries to cut through the fiction using archival records, declassified files and interviews with people who knew Bose or his associates. Published by Institute of Objective Studies, New Delhi, the book has twenty chapters in three broad parts. The first covers Bose's upbringing and early entry into the freedom movement. The second follows his adventurous wartime career and the Azad Hind Fauj. The third deals with his last journey and its aftermath, followed by an epilogue, endnotes and an index. Rawat opens by explaining how rumours about "Netaji files" have been circulated by "WhatsApp universities" ...

By A Representative   Occupational safety and health rights organisations have described the electrocution of eight workers during road construction in Jhunjhunu district, Rajasthan, as a preventable killing caused by criminal negligence, saying the incident was not an accident. In a press statement, the groups said, “We, the undersigned organizations working on Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) Rights of workers in India, express our deep anguish and outrage at the tragic death of 8 workers who were electrocuted while constructing a road in Jhunjhunu district, Rajasthan.”

By A Representative   A Gujarat minority rights body has urged the state's top police officer to crack down on organised gangs allegedly extorting money from livestock transporters on highways and to investigate fresh allegations of police brutality, including the public flogging and parading of accused persons.

By A Representative   A group of citizens and education activists in Gujarat has submitted a memorandum to State Education Minister Dr. Pradyumanji, expressing concern over the condition of the state’s education system and seeking urgent measures to address teacher shortages, student dropouts, inadequate school infrastructure and the growing privatisation of education.

By A Representative   The Delhi Union of Journalists (DUJ) has expressed alarm at the violence that has marked Andhra Pradesh's urban local body elections, and condemned the mob attack on two India Today journalists in Pulivendula. Reporter Abdul Basheer and cameraperson S. Vijay were attacked on November 1 while covering polling near a booth in the town, in Kadapa district. Reports said their camera was smashed and their phones taken.

Counterview News   A group of 18 water experts, environmentalists, researchers and civil society representatives has urged the Central and Delhi governments to prioritise rejuvenation of the Yamuna and protection of its floodplain instead of pushing a Sabarmati-style riverfront development project along the 52-km stretch of the river in the capital. In a representation  published by the South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers and People (SANDRP), the signatories warned that replicating the Ahmedabad model in Delhi would be “scientifically inappropriate” and could “threaten the river’s ecological integrity, compromise flood safety and weaken floodplain protection”.

Counterview News   India’s recent employment data presents a seemingly triumphant narrative: rural women’s labour force participation has nearly doubled, soaring from 24.6% in 2017-18 to 47.6% in 2023-24, marking one of the sharpest increases globally. However, a deeper analysis by global civil rights group Oxfam, coupled with warnings from financial accountability experts, reveals that this statistical surge is not a hallmark of women’s economic empowerment. Instead, it is a distress signal pointing to shrinking opportunities, falling wages, and a dismantled rural safety net.

By Vikas Meshram*  The story of Maharashtra’s sugar industry is typically told through the lens of factory chimneys, crushing-season quotas, and global commodity prices. But behind the sweetness of the final product lies a bitter, hidden reality: the lives of lakhs of men and women who step into the sun-scorched fields with a sickle in hand.