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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.

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…

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.

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.

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”.

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.

Dowry-related crimes in India are routinely underreported and undercounted, an IndiaSpend analysis of government data and various studies shows. This reflects in official data as well. National crime data show that several states routinely report hundreds of dowry deaths but few or no cases under the dowry harassment law. In 2022 for…

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.

 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.