There’s a teen suicide epidemic in Kota, and it’s getting worse
The ultimate Indian aspiration of becoming doctors and engineers was once a stereotype; today, it’s a deadly obsession
Politics | Power | Inequality
"I like the noise of democracy."
From being a playboy to a political prisoner: Imran Khan Shakes Up Pakistan's Politics
Once a sex symbol and a cricketing giant, Imran Khan has now become a disruptive force to reckon with in Pakistan’s chaotic politics.
The Fearlessness of Kanji
How a simple rice dish became a Tamil symbol of resistance in Sri Lanka.
These Politicians in Cash-Strapped Pakistan Were Gifted the World’s Most Expensive Watches
Newly-declassified records of state gifts, released for the first time in Pakistan’s history, have exposed the vast wealth acquired by Pakistan’s political elite causing outrage across the cash-strapped country.
Thousands of ‘Dead’ Men Are Fighting to be Declared Alive
India’s colonial-era land laws give powers to land revenue officials to declare a person dead, a declaration that’s nearly impossible to overturn. If you’re dead in Indian government records, you can’t buy a registered mobile, rent a home, start a business, get married, get divorced—in essence, you’re a dead person walking. Photos: Vijay Pandey
‘It’s the Apocalypse’: Thousands Flee As This Holy Himalayan Town Sinks Into the Ground
Experts have been warning for decades that Joshimath is in a high-risk seismic zone and prone to land subsidence—when the earth moves vertically downwards—but construction in this popular holy town, surrounded by glaciers, to accommodate pilgrims, ski tourists, and hydropower plants, has been relentless.
We Met an All-Women Flogging Squad in Indonesia
Public floggings are business as usual in Aceh, a uniquely conservative province in a country that has the world’s largest Muslim population. What’s uncommon, though, is flogging delivered by a woman, a contract employee of the Sharia police.
Asia’s Richest Man Is Giving the Slum From ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ a Makeover
Adani Enterprises, the billionaire’s flagship firm that has a market value of $55 billion, outbid top developers at $612 million to lay claim to what Indian authorities call “the world’s largest urban renewal scheme.”
Why Aren't People Letting This Billionaire Build His $900M Port?
A $900-million port has become a bone of contention between a local fishing community in India and one of the world’s richest men.
Victims of Indonesia’s Deadly Stadium Stampede Are Being Dug From Their Graves
Indonesia has a rich football culture of avid fan groups that, at times, have been linked to hooliganism. Games are known to spill over into violence, with fans provoking rivals, and Indonesian police regularly using a heavy-handed approach to crowd control.
One of the World’s Most Secretive Spy Agencies Just Held Their First Press Conference
An unlikely and bizarre press conference stunned the people and political observers in Pakistan. “You all must be surprised to see me here,” Lieutenant General Nadeem Anjum, one of the country’s highest ranking generals and the director general of one of the world’s most secretive spy agencies, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), said in a press conference in Rawalpindi city.
Bigger, Better, Cheaper: How India Is Building a Private Empire in Space
The space programme in the world’s biggest democracy has existed since 1969. But in 2020, Modi announced that the country is going to put its heart – and money – into the private sector. This could lead to India’s own “SpaceX-type ventures.”
Why This Rich and Powerful Family Is Blamed for All of Sri Lanka’s Money Problems
Despite facing tear gas and water cannons from the Sri Lankan military, protesters have been calling the Rajapaksas “thieves” for stealing public money, blaming them for the economic downfall and for bringing suffering to the very people who voted them into power for nearly 20 years. Yet despite loud calls for his resignation, Gotabaya clings doggedly to power.
Cops Burn $66 Million Worth of a Tribe’s Cannabis ‘To Send a Message’
Over the years, journalists investigating the cannabis trade in the region have reported how the survival of indigenous tribes was closely linked to cannabis cultivation. Police interventions were sporadic, so much so that it seemed allowing the tribes to cultivate cannabis was a part of police strategy, reports said.
The Muslim Teen Who Faced Off With Hindu Supremacists in India’s Growing Hijab Ban
“I had no idea my life would change overnight."
Inside the Illegal Trade of $20,000 Shawls Made From an Endangered Animal
Despite the ban and severe punishments linked to flouting its rules, wildlife and border authorities continue to seize hundreds of shahtoosh items, especially shawls, across the world every year. Experts say that the illicit trade still thrives and threatens the dwindling population of chirus.
Students Are Finally Returning to School in Bangladesh, but the Girls Are Missing
Around 64 million Bangladeshi children already struggle to access education due to factors like natural calamities and poverty. The pandemic made it worse, bringing another new factor interfering with education: a rise in child marriages.
Her Daughter Was Kidnapped by Traffickers. So She Trafficked Herself.
Asiya willingly trafficked herself into India so that she could rescue Marium, who had fallen victim to a cross-border trafficking ring.
The Photo of a 3-Year-Old Sitting On His Dead Grandfather Has Kashmir on the Edge
“The state has been reduced to optics. They want to show to the world that everything is good, and the only troubles are from the ‘terrorists.'"
The Horror and Sorrow of Gorakhpur - Open The Magazine
Pallavi Pundir visits ground zero of the tragedy at Baba Raghav Das Medical College hospital
Castles In The Air
Gurgaon is a bubble of glass and steel, money and aspiration, whose affluent residents believed they never needed the sarkar. Has this year’s multiple deluges finally washed away that illusion?
Castles In The Air
Gurgaon is a bubble of glass and steel, money and aspiration, whose affluent residents believed they never needed the sarkar. Has this year’s multiple deluges finally washed away that illusion?The polished marble floor gives the lift operator, with his squeaky, worn-out shoes, away as he steps out momentarily to let us out on the eleventh floor. Below, the landscape appears spacious and green but so few people are visible that we could well be looking down at a ghost town.Vineet Katariya, 41, me...
