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The Latest Breaking News from IndiaSpend

1 in 4 tap water samples fail tests. 3 in 4 households drink it untreated

One in four water samples collected from India’s household tap connections did not meet microbiological standards, according to a 2024 assessment of the Jal Jeevan Mission. While 76 percent of samples passed laboratory tests, 24 percent did not, according to the Ministry of Jal Shakti’s national report.

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How the ‘pharmacy of the world’ lets down Indians

India is known as the ‘Pharmacy of the World’ for being the largest global supplier of generic medicines and affordable drugs. Yet, policy gaps compel India’s poor to struggle to source medicines, sometimes at exorbitant rates.

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Health budget grows every year. So why isn’t public healthcare improving?

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced a Rs 1.06 lakh crore health budget for 2026-27, a 9 percent increase from the current financial year. Yet persistent gaps in utilisation, staffing and quality suggest higher allocations alone cannot fix India's public health crisis.

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9 in 10 Indians do not exercise

Only one in 10 Indians exercised on a given day in 2024, according to the Time Use Survey by the National Statistics Office (NSO). Exercise participation has increased since 2019, when 5.7 percent Indians reported exercising, but remains close to the 8 percent recorded in the 1998 survey conducted by the Central…

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How African swine fever, policy gaps are devastating Assam’s pig farmers

For 15 years, Binita and Mridul Buragohain built their pig farm in Betbari village, starting with two pigs and slowly expanding to a herd of 75. In October last year, one of their pigs fell ill, and five others died soon after from African Swine Fever (ASF). The rest had…

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India’s data landscape is broken. Here’s what needs to change

By the end of last year, 16 major Indian datasets were delayed across sectors such as health, education, economy, environment, and demography as IndiaSpend reported in 2024. Ten of these have since been released.

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How India’s Rs 34,000 crore CSR spending is distributed

Indian firms spend about Rs 34,000 crore on corporate social responsibility (CSR), but most of this flows into low-poverty areas, and larger firms are leaving funds unspent. Many large companies are using their own foundations to take up activities, which gives them better control.

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In ‘the land of abundant water’, Jal Jeevan has a cruel truth

Anita Tripura wakes up at 3.30 a.m., pulls out her teesing – – a large bamboo basket with aluminium pots stacked up inside it – and marches downhill in darkness. The teesing is attached to a long cloth-band that hangs from her forehead. A flickering kerosene lamp that she holds…

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How Himalayan states have higher food prices

The cost of groceries per person per day in Mizoram was Rs 77.5 in November 2025, about Rs 20 more than the all-India average (Rs 57), as per Food Price Watch, IndiaSpend’s realtime dashboard, which aggregates food prices from various groups across the country to estimate how much an individual or…

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Two-thirds of Delhi does not have reliable air quality data

As winter deepens, New Delhi is once again losing the fight for breath. Every winter, Delhi continues to choke under hazardous air — and this year is no exception. On November 18, the Central Pollution Control Board’s (CPCB’s) 24-hour bulletin recorded a city-wide Air Quality Index (AQI) of 374, placing Delhi…

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130 kmph tracks, 55 kmph speed: Why are Indian trains still this slow despite Mission Raftaar?

In March 2025, the Ministry of Railways had stated that most of its divisions maintain “over 90% punctuality”. Behind the headline figure lies the everyday reality of passengers, with the punctuality index actually declining. Reliance on diesel locomotives, signal failures and congestion lead to most delays, data show and experts say.

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More two-wheelers, gig workers under pressure: In India, 9 bike riders die every hour

Indian roads are increasingly becoming more dangerous for its most vulnerable users, an IndiaSpend analysis of national data shows. In a decade to 2023, road accident deaths increased 24 percent to about 173,000, but pedestrian deaths nearly tripled, those of two-wheeler riders nearly doubled, and cyclist deaths rose 13 percent.

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‘We thought the battle was over’: 40 years after resistance, mining fears return to Odisha’s sacred hills

There is an uneasy calm in Kuradiphasa village at the foothills of the Gandhamardhan Hills. “It is the calm before the storm,” says Himanjali Das, who belongs to the indigenous Kondh tribe.

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In coastal Odisha, climate change is disrupting a generation’s education

On a cloudy afternoon, CH Padmini, in her mid 20s, strolls along the Rushikulya beach, lost in memories. A group of fishermen mending nets exchange greetings in Telugu as she walks by. She stops close to the water, where a fishing boat is tied up.

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‘Jail within a jail’: Death row and the impact on mental health

When Asif Khan was arrested in Belgaum in October 2006 in connection to the Mumbai blasts in July of that year, he did not think it would be the beginning of a 19-year prison ordeal involving physical torture, terrorism allegations and “mental torture”.

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11 years later, Swachh Bharat progress mired in weak verification

Eleven years after India launched the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, the Union government’s flagship rural sanitation programme, it has missed its target of ‘Sampoorn Swachhata’ by 2024-25, exposing gaps in waste management, untreated sewage, and behavioural change that challenge the sustainability of India’s sanitation progress.

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Why are dowry-related crimes underreported

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Mapping India’s 10 million teachers in six charts

India’s teaching workforce crossed 10 million in 2024-25, latest publicly available data show. Government schools continue to employ the largest share, even as private unaided schools are increasing their teacher strength.

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Why wetlands need dry days

It was May and the Nawabganj Bird Sanctuary in Unnao, Uttar Pradesh was blooming with pink lotus. The wetland had water pumped into it from Sharda Canal – one of the oldest and largest irrigation systems in the state – to ease the nesting of open-billed stork and black-necked ibis.

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India’s health systems need to prepare better for rising climate risks

Diarrhoea in October, heat stress in April, and malaria and dengue year-round are part of a new pattern that Suvarna Kamble (46), an accredited social health activist (ASHA) in Palghar district in Maharashtra, has identified in recent years.

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The challenges in UP’s wetland conservation

Sanjaya Singh knew that most bureaucratic decisions last only until a transfer order is issued, or a new official takes charge. So, when it came to the conservation of Uttar Pradesh’s 1.24 million hectares of wetlands, Singh – then principal chief conservator of forest and chief wildlife warden – led with an…

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How industries, chemicals ministry influenced India’s plastic rules

As diplomats from 175 countries convene for a plastics showdown in Geneva, India’s negotiators arrive armed with a playbook shaped less by environmental urgency and more by industry whispers.

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Explained: Why India’s inequality is underestimated

India’s consumption gap appears to shrink, but income inequality is rising fast, as per analysis of India’s consumption data by the World Bank.

Newslaundry

India’s unregulated bidis harm workers, consumers

On a busy street near Patna’s Rajendra Path, 11-year-old Sanjay* watches his elder brother roll up tendu leaves stuffed with tobacco flakes. Within minutes, a fresh bundle of bidis is ready to be sold for one rupee (Re 1) to eager customers that have lined up outside his paan shop.…

Newslaundry

Why are tribal students dropping out after primary school?

Nearly every tribal Indian child aged six to 10 years is enrolled in school, but by the age of 14, only three in four go to school, while fewer than half the children aged 16-17 remain enrolled, data from the Unified District Information System for Education (UDISE+) for 2023-24, the…

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