Dear Reader,

Last week, on April 6, the Centre notified the IT Amendment Rules, 2023, which has serious implications and a chilling effect on media freedom in India.

MediaNama analyses the amendment which grants the government omnibus powers to decide what constitutes facts or fake news, through its own fact-checking mechanism, and empowers it to order social media platforms, internet providers and intermediaries to remove content that government considers “fake”, “false” or “misleading”. This is in clear violation, the story points out, of the Supreme Court’s ruling in the Shreya Singhal case in 2013 which laid down strict procedures for blocking content.

The Northeast of India, once saddled with insurgency, ethnic conflicts and neglect is witnessing a newfound love – a rash of quality scholarship on the seven states – on its culture, its history and ecology. ThePrint reports from the Northeast on how this buzz and burst of academic energy has even the premier academic institutions interested, including the likes of Harvard University and the IITs.

The debate on how to deal with ‘Arikomban’, the rogue elephant who has been creating havoc in the Chinnakanal region, in the Idukki district of Kerala, has been raging. The Kerala High Court has intervened to order the relocation of the elephant to the Parambikulam Tiger Reserve. Keraleeyam Masika travels to ground zero to find out why the area has been a frequent battleground between humans and animals.

And, The Probe investigates the shocking state of affairs in the MCD schools in Delhi, where the institutions themselves constitute a "critical risk to children". This utter neglect of the schools and shirking of responsibility is all the more unfortunate as the children are from marginalised communities and the parents usually do not have the strength to hold the school administration accountable.

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

Warmly,

Sunil Rajshekhar
IPSMF

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Indian Government Can Now Fact Check And Censor Any News Related To The Government: Amended IT Rules

In a body blow to media freedom in India, the government has, through an amendment in the IT Rules, acquired wide and far-reaching powers to censor content. MediaNama analyses the new provisions.

Read Here

New-age Northeast scholarship dominating global academic scene. IIT to Harvard, all want in

ThePrint reports on the surge of academic energy in the Northeast of India, with a profusion of young scholars delving deep into the region’s history and culture.

Read Here

അരിക്കൊമ്പനും ആനയോളം ആശങ്കകളും

Keraleeyam Masika travels to Chinnakanal in Idukki district in Kerala, where a wild elephant has been causing damage and destruction, to understand the reasons for the repeated instances of human-animal conflict in the area.

Watch Here

Gang-rape Of Class 5 Student: Delhi MCD Schools Continue To Be A Ticking Time Bomb

The Probe investigates the deplorable condition of Delhi's MCD schools – from not being able to provide the children with basic facilities, to the schools themselves becoming centres that infringe on the children’s rights.

Read Here

More from the grantees
ആൾകൂട്ടം തല്ലിക്കൊന്ന മധു
As the special court in Kerala sentences 13 people convicted for beating a tribal man, Madhu, to death in Palakkad’s Attapady in 2018, TrueCopy Think chronicles the journey for justice.
As J&K Govt Reactivates A Controversial Civilian Militia, Local Hindus In An Isolated Village Feel Safer
As the Village Defence Guards facility, under which the villagers are trained and armed to defend themselves, is being revived in Jammu and Kashmir, Article 14 reports from Rajouri district on what this means for the people in the Dhangri village.
त्रिपुरा: आदिम खेती से आधुनिक खेती तक
Main Bhi Bharat reports from Tripura on how the state’s agriculture has moved from Jhoom, or shifting cultivation, to adopting modern farming practices and transitioning to cash crops.
Jammu and Kashmir: From Political to Economic Dispossession
With elections to Jammu and Kashmir assembly nowhere in sight, The India Forum argues that on top of the political vacuum, the state has also seen declining economic and social indices in recent years.

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