Global Voices

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The world is talking, are you listening?

Since 1967, the Jaduguda region in the Indian state of Jharkhand has been exploited for its uranium and its people and ecosystem were subjected to uranium poisoning. Anuj Wankhede informs that the locals had not sufficiently warned and rather the uranium contamination in Jaduguda has remained as India's one of the best kept secret.

Mahitha Kasireddi at Youth Ki Awaaz writes about a perennial social problem in Indian higher secondary education and beyond. Ragging or abuse/bullying of the freshers has become a culture in many educational institutions which has even led to death of a newcomer.

Medianama reports that the Ministry of Home affairs of India has banned bulk SMS and MMS for a period of 15 days. This directive came after reports revealed that rumors are being spread following violence in Assam, leading to mass exodus of people from the North-East region, from several Indian cities.

Anuradha Shankar posts a photo essay on the Varalakshmi Vratham (a festival to propitiate the goddess Lakshmi), which is popular in the Indian states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamilnadu.

Last week, power grids across Northern India collapsed and neighboring Bhutan's hydroelectricity was used to run the Delhi Metro. Indian Twitterati were bemused by this fact and reacted on Twitter so much that ‘Bhutan’ ended up in the top ten trending hashtags on Twitter, reports Boaz Shmueli.

Kracktivist informs that Pad.ma, an online archive of densely text-annotated video material, is offering Fellowship to Indian and non-Indian individuals for experiments and research with video archives.

Rita Banerji interviews Indo-Canadian and feminist artist Soraya Nulliah, who comments that everything the campaign against female gendercide in India addresses is happening to Indian women in Western countries as well.

Purba Ray asks whether multiculturalism breeds intolerance.

“Air India's pilots, engineers, cabin crew, ground staff etc. have not been paid salaries for several months,” reports the Voice of an Indian Citizen while discussing how to solve this problem.

Sasi at Random Thoughts reports that Sanal Edamuruku, the President of the Indian Rationalist Association, is facing arrest for proclaiming that the “dripping cross” outside Vile Parle’s Velankanni church is not a miracle, but the result of a natural action. A petition is online to call for dropping the complaints against him.

A huge population in the Indian sub-continent celebrate their birthdays on two different days – one the official one, and one on the day they were actually born. Binayak Ghosh explains why.

Indian Homemaker posts lots of photos of the Dove All Women's IndiBlogger Meet at New Delhi held on 10th of June, 2012.

Kiruba Shankar has started a photography project titled Colonial Bungalows, in which century old residential bungalows (British, French and Portuguese) in India will be photographed and documented.

Kracktivist informs that blogger Vidyut Kale of aamjanata.com had received a take down notice for an article being defamatory. In the alleged post the blogger exposed financial corruption of some influential persons.

Rita Banerji opines that the main reason for the recent grueling summers in the cities is that more and more trees are being cut down.

Nila at Akhond Of Swat lists some controversial subjects the Indians should not write about to avoid offending someone (and going to jail).

How do international media represent cities in South America, Asia, Africa and the Middle East? Is it fair or helpful to development? A symposium of scholars from the London School of Economics in London, United Kingdom explore this topic. See video.

Jaspreet discusses how some Indian men have to balance between their love for cricket and obviously for their wife.

Undiscovered Indian treasures Blog reports that Kodhini, a town in Kerala, India, with a population of only 2000 villagers has around 350 twins. This rate is 700 times of the global average.

The arrest of Ambikesh Mahapatra, a professor of Jadavpur University, for circulating West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjees's cartoon has enraged many online activists. A cartoon exhibition protesting her acts is available online.

There is a new hype in India – the rise of tea cafés (tea lounges or tea bars). Charukeshi lists some of the best tea cafés in different Indian cities which you can explore.

Ramanujapuram analyzes the Union Budget (annual budget of the Republic of India), and opines that the tax payers are paying interest for the scams and corruption of some of the members of the ruling coalition.

Pattabi Raman’s photo essay on working mothers in parts of rural India is up at the International Museum for women. The photo essay highlights issues that are specific to women in parts of rural India, such as the threat of displacement due to industrialization.

Apar Gupta discusses about the legal concerns of a blogger and five legal points one should know while blogging in India.

Debolina Raja Gupta notes that although the West Bengal Government In India had decided to take the hand drawn rickshaws off by 2005-2006 they are still plying in Kolkata roads.

Maria Francis introduces us a new App, iWife, an worthy successor of your wife.

Soumalya Ray at Medica-India explains the recent Supreme Court judgement which upheld the Right to Education and mandated 25% reservation in private as well as government-aided minority schools for children from the weaker sections of society.

The recent arrest of an university professor in West Bengal, India, over a humorous political cartoon has been met by stiff resistance and protest both online and offline. On his blog Pabitraspeaks, blogger Pabitra Mukhopadhyay discusses how the incident is another in a slew of recent incidents that have negatively impacted the image of the state's Chief Minister, Ms. Mamata Banerjee.

Ram Bansal elaborates what Indian traditions are damaging to human health.

Dilip D'Souza at Death Ends Fun comments on the arrests of Tibetan activists in India: “we gave the Tibetans shelter when they fled from the excesses of China. Now we arrest them when Chinese premiers come visiting.”