Dear Reader,

The integrity of India’s electoral machinery came under sharp scrutiny when the Election Commission of India (ECI) defended its conduct of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in West Bengal before the Supreme Court. The ECI asserted that electoral officers were individually examining voter records and issuing notices after due application of mind. However, a detailed investigation by The Reporters’ Collective uncovers a starkly different reality — more than 1.5 crore notices were generated centrally through a software-driven exercise that relied on outdated voter lists from 2002–04 and automated matching rules. This process, plagued by transliteration errors and rigid algorithms, flagged vast numbers of legitimate voters as ‘suspect,’ compelling them to prove their eligibility under compressed timelines.

On the ground, constituency officials described being overwhelmed, tasked with printing and dispatching thousands of notices daily, often without the time, data, or clarity needed for genuine verification. Internal communications reviewed by The Reporters’ Collective reveal that ECI officials were aware of technical flaws and data inconsistencies, yet the revision proceeded at breakneck speed. Critics argue that by presenting this mechanised process to the Supreme Court as a human-led, deliberative exercise, the ECI may have misrepresented material facts. The episode raises grave questions about transparency, due process, and the protection of voting rights—core pillars of India’s democratic framework.

मैं भी भारत, in the third in a series of ground reports on the lives of tribal communities in Nandurbar district of Maharashtra, takes viewers deep into the Satpura hills to reveal the everyday consequences of long-standing neglect. Despite being located in one of India’s wealthiest states, Nandurbar remains marked by extreme deprivation. Entire villages exist in network dark zones, forcing residents to climb hilltops for biometric verification. Years of physical labour have erased workers’ fingerprints, leading to biometric failures that deny them food rations, wages, and welfare benefits in a system that has moved online without accounting for ground realities.

The report documents how stalled infrastructure and fragile public services compound this hardship. A bridge whose construction began in 2012 remains incomplete, cutting off thousands and often turning medical emergencies—childbirth, snakebites, or sudden illness—into life-threatening situations. Alongside this, the silent burden of sickle cell disease, malnutrition, and tuberculosis continues to afflict tribal families, with migration for work disrupting treatment and follow-up care. While the report identifies islands of hope in committed health workers, select Ashram schools, and livelihood initiatives such as fish farming, it underscores a larger truth—access to development schemes is limited, uncertain, and often dependent on chance rather than entitlement, leaving fundamental questions of dignity, equity, and justice unresolved.

Odisha is widely acknowledged for being at the forefront of a robust disaster response mechanism along its coasts, with early warning systems, emergency protocols, and the construction of cyclone shelters all attesting to its dedication to mitigating the effects of natural disasters. However, just a few dozen kilometres inland, these safety measures dissipate—hilly regions such as Gajapati, only 55 kilometres from the coast, remain vulnerable to torrential rain, strong winds, uprooted trees, and swollen rivers, often with fatal consequences.

In Gajapati, a district in southern Odisha, The Migration Story reports that Cyclone Titli, which struck in 2018, has had a lasting impact on the region’s topography and hydrology that continues to haunt the district to this day. Fierce winds uprooted trees and stripped topsoil from the hills’ step farms, reducing fertility and facilitating the proliferation of weeds. Landslides have buried the sources of springs, leaving once-perennial rivers running dry. Forest products have also diminished with the loss of trees, leading to a stark drop in supplementary income. While the state endeavours to stem the distress migration that followed the 2018 cyclone through schemes and awareness campaigns, particularly vulnerable tribal groups remain on the edge of an existential precipice.

The File reports that KAVIKA, Karnataka’s public sector transformer manufacturer with a 93-year history, has been ignored in a recent procurement proposal. The state government plans to purchase ₹170 crore worth of power transformers by invoking a ‘4G emergency exemption’ — a procedure allowing officials to bypass standard open tender rules in cases of urgency — effectively sidelining KAVIKA and other local suppliers.

Instead of awarding the contract through an open competitive process, the transformer supply order has been issued directly to Transformers and Electricals Kerala Limited (TELK), a public sector undertaking based in Angamaly, Kerala, jointly owned by the Government of Kerala and NTPC Limited, for the manufacture and supply of the prescribed power transformers under the urgency provisions. Critics, including officials from government departments, have raised concerns that bypassing the competitive bidding process overlooks the claims of local manufacturers, reduces transparency, and sets a precedent for overriding established procurement procedures.

For more such stories from the grantees this week, please read on.

Warmly,

Sunil Rajshekhar
IPSMF