SARA ALTUWAIJRI WRITES- At the very end of 2019, India’s Parliament issued a new Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) granting citizenship to refugees who entered the country prior to December 31 of 2014. This act covered refugees from Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Myanmar, and Sri Lanka, among other countries. CAA was supposedly…
Tag: India
India: The Next Leader in the Space Race
DIEGO GARCIA WRITES– Rakesh Sharma, a former space traveler, and India’s first astronaut, stated at a conference on April 5th, 2019, “The Indian programme has advanced both in space science and space applications, and has developed unique low-cost space technologies”. As India continues to position itself as an important…
WORLD: Who is China and India’s New Industrial Rival?
DIEGO GARCIA WRITES– Bangladesh, a small country with a GDP of 250 billion (2017), is rapidly industrializing— giving stiff competition to two Asian giants: China and India. Even though most of our apparel is made in China, Bangladesh does not fall far behind; in 2017 it was the world’s second-largest…
LGBTQ: The Indian Films From Outfest You Need to See
PAULA MARKOW WRITES– Outfest Fusion, a film festival that showcases the LGBTQ community, ran from March 1 to 5 at the Chinese Theatre, offering an array of short films. One segment that caught my attention was a series of shorts about the LGBT community in India. The first short, Yaman,…
India: WhatsApp’s Fight Against Fake News in India
Despite the positive effects of online social communities, easy access has led to a spread of so-called “fake news,” where false stories are forwarded among family members and friends. To manage such abuse, WhatsApp, a messaging platform, has launched a campaign in India to filter out such messages by deleting…
INDIA: Postpartum Depression, Women, and the Indian Society in Between
(Certain names in the story have been shortened to protect the person’s identity.) AASHNA MALPANI WRITES– I hear a piercing wail in the background. My source puts the phone on hold for a minute, then returns with apologies: “Sometimes I wish I never had him.” She sounds exasperated, complaining about…
India: Choked by Smog
OLIVIA AMEZCUA WRITES — The smog that has been polluting New Delhi for decades has reached a new intensity, according to recent reports, with pollution levels 20 times the World Health Organization’s recommended limit. In fact, the New Delhi Air Quality Index hit an all-time high reading of 999. Last…
INDIA: THE NEW, RAZOR-FAST TECHNOLOGY OF HATRED AND THE URGENT NEED TO DULL THE EDGES
SAUD AL RASHED WRITES – Social media is a relatively new phenomenon, and, due to the fact that it is relatively new, it is not very clear how it should be handled. The matter is complicated by the fact that social media platforms are evolving every day -and sometimes things…
INDIA: NOT UNLIKE FACEBOOK, WILL ‘AADHAR’ PROVE A BOON OR A CURSE?
YOUSEF AL HOMAIDHI WRITES — Aadhar is an ambitious project started by the Government of India which functions under the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) and came into existence in 2009. Aadhar is a 12-digit unique identification number that is given to each and every citizen by UIDAI. It…
FILM: AMAZON AND NETFLIX TURN INDIA INTO A HUGE CREATIVE OPPORTUNITY FOR ITS BEST YOUNG TV AND MOVIE TALENTS
FASSA SAR WRITES – Amazon and Netflix are now battling it out to gain the eyeballs of millions of Indian television viewers. These two company giants are moving away from the traditional Hollywood strategy where television and film are created for American audiences with the hope they catch some international…
INDIA: PADMAAVAT FILM LEADS TO CONTROVERSY REGARDING RELIGION
DIANA JABLONSKI WRITES – Riots and protesting broke out in India last month against the release of the controversial Bollywood film “Padmaavat.” Protesters have filled streets, vandalized cinemas, ransacked shops, burned vehicles, and called for the film’s ban. In fact, protests started a year before the film’s release, with vandals…
FILM: WHOEVER SAID INDIA HAS NO SENSITIVE MALES?
FASSA SAR WRITES – Arunachalam Murugunatham’s community once even labeled him a pervert when he decided to create a low-cost sanitary pad for women in rural India. He noticed that the women’s menstrual cycles were considered so taboo, it led to women using old rags, sand, leaves and even ash…
PAKISTAN: MORE CIVILIAN KILLINGS, MORE CONDEMNATIONS – WILL IT NEVER END?
MURAD BASRAWI WRITES – Pakistan has condemned Indian soldiers for the brutal killing of three innocent civilians, and the injury of several others, in the Ganowpora Village of Shopian—a district in India-Occupied Kashmir this past month. Pakistan’s Foreign Office in Islamabad delivered an angry statement to the media claiming that…
INDIA: INDIA HATES WOMEN (EVEN MORE) WHEN THEY’RE WITH THE OPPOSITE SEX
AASHNA MALPANI WRITES – Stories of harassment and violence in India made headlines all over the world again when a Swiss couple was brutally assaulted by a group of five young men at Fatehpur Sikri near Agra late last month. Marie Droz and Quentin Jérémy Clerc, both 24, decided on…
INDIA: THE FESTIVAL OF LIGHT BLANKETS PEOPLE IN SMOG
JESSICA LEGASPI WRITES — Indians around the world can turn to the media to see the Diwali celebration in India, but for those living in New Delhi, they can barely see the hands in front of their faces. On October 31, the day after Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights,…
INDIA: NEW BOLLYWOOD FILM GIVES MISOGYNY THE PINK SLIP
FASSA SAR WRITES – Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury’s new Bollywood film, Pink, combats underlying sexism and androcentrism within Indian culture. The film points out the misogynist culture that justifies violence against and control of women. The film, Pink, tells the story of three girls, Meenal, Falak, and Andrea, who attend a…