Section

Investigations

Sourced explainers and deep-dives on the record behind the headlines.

33 stories

India’s GDP was revised. The IMF also downgraded our data.

A base-year change revised India’s growth figures — and arrived alongside an IMF downgrade of India’s national-accounts data to a "C" grade.

27 May 2026 · 6 minRead →

India’s press-freedom ranking keeps falling. Why it matters to you.

Reporters Without Borders ranks India 157th of 180 in 2026, down from 151st. A free press is how citizens find out what governments would rather hide.

3 May 2026 · 5 minRead →

How a privacy law quietly weakened your Right to Information

The Digital Personal Data Protection Act amended the RTI Act — removing the public-interest test that let citizens access officials’ records.

10 Mar 2026 · 5 minRead →

NEET 2024: the exam leak the Supreme Court called "undisputed"

India’s single medical-entrance exam was hit by a paper leak. The court confirmed it happened — then let the result stand. Both facts matter.

2 Mar 2026 · 5 minRead →

The 2.5% promise: India’s health-spending target keeps slipping

The National Health Policy set a goal: 2.5% of GDP on public health by 2025. The combined Centre-plus-State figure is stuck near 1.9%.

25 Feb 2026 · 5 minRead →

Did India really hit the WHO doctor ratio? It’s complicated.

The government says India now meets the WHO’s 1:1000 doctor-to-population standard. Two catches: that "WHO standard" is a misattribution, and rural specialist posts sit largely empty.

22 Feb 2026 · 5 minRead →

More women are working — but mostly for no pay

India’s female labour-force participation has nearly doubled since 2017-18 — but the rise is largely in unpaid family work, not salaried jobs.

20 Feb 2026 · 4 minRead →

The jobs number that doesn’t reach young women

The headline unemployment rate eased in 2025 — but the official PLFS data shows urban young women are still locked out at nearly 24%.

18 Feb 2026 · 5 minRead →

"Digital arrest": the scam that cost Indians ₹22,000 crore

Fraudsters posing as police "arrest" victims over video call and drain their savings. The losses are staggering — but a public-awareness push actually worked.

16 Feb 2026 · 4 minRead →

India switches off the internet more than almost anyone

India ordered 84 internet shutdowns in 2024 — the most of any democracy, second only to military-run Myanmar.

14 Feb 2026 · 4 minRead →

The agency that raids everyone and convicts almost no one

The Enforcement Directorate files money-laundering cases that dominate headlines — but secures convictions in under 5% of them, and 95% of politicians it probes are from the opposition.

12 Feb 2026 · 5 minRead →

Manipur: two years on, tens of thousands still can’t go home

Ethnic violence that began in May 2023 left hundreds dead and tens of thousands in relief camps. A look at the human toll and the road back.

10 Feb 2026 · 6 minRead →

The richest 1% of Indians own more than 40% of the wealth

Oxfam’s analysis finds India among the most unequal economies on earth — the top 1% hold over 40% of wealth while the bottom half own 3%.

8 Feb 2026 · 4 minRead →

A global index calls India an "electoral autocracy." What that means.

The V-Dem Institute has classified India as an "electoral autocracy" since 2017. The government rejects the label — so it’s worth understanding what the data actually measures.

6 Feb 2026 · 5 minRead →

Adani–Hindenburg: what the Supreme Court and SEBI actually concluded

A short-seller’s report wiped out billions in market value and triggered a regulator probe and a Supreme Court case. Here’s the verified state of play.

2 Feb 2026 · 6 minRead →

India will count caste for the first time since 1931

After a four-decade demand, the government agreed in 2025 to enumerate caste in the next census — the first such count since 1931.

31 Jan 2026 · 4 minRead →

The rupee just crossed 90 to the dollar

A decade ago a strong rupee was sold as the mark of a strong government. The rupee hit a record low past 90 to the dollar in December 2025.

30 Jan 2026 · 4 minRead →

After the farm-law repeal: the MSP promise still unkept

The three farm laws were repealed in 2021. The central promise that followed — a committee on MSP — has yet to deliver, and farmers are back at Delhi’s borders.

28 Jan 2026 · 5 minRead →

Officially, no one dies of manual scavenging. People keep dying in sewers.

The government told Parliament there were "no manual-scavenging deaths." Official data also records 63 sewer-cleaning deaths in 2023 and 52 in 2024. Both can’t be the full truth.

26 Jan 2026 · 5 minRead →

A $4 trillion economy — and per-person income near Bangladesh’s

India is the world’s 4th-largest economy by total size — but split across 1.4 billion people, per-person income sits close to Bangladesh’s, and the IMF expects Bangladesh to edge ahead in 2026.

24 Jan 2026 · 4 minRead →

A crime against a woman is reported every 70 seconds

The government’s own crime bureau recorded 4.45 lakh crimes against women in 2022 — about 51 every hour, and rising.

22 Jan 2026 · 4 minRead →

Electoral bonds: what the Supreme Court actually found

A five-judge bench struck down the electoral bond scheme as unconstitutional, and ordered the donor data published. Here’s the plain-English version.

20 Jan 2026 · 6 minRead →

When the GST promise to states quietly expired

States gave up their tax powers for GST on a five-year promise of compensation. That guarantee lapsed in June 2022 — and what replaced it was debt, not assurance.

20 Jan 2026 · 4 minRead →

Agnipath: the four-year soldier, and the questions it raised

A 2022 overhaul made most new soldiers four-year contract recruits. It sparked nationwide protests and a debate that hasn’t settled.

18 Jan 2026 · 5 minRead →

EVMs and VVPATs: what the Supreme Court actually ruled

In April 2024 the Supreme Court rejected demands for 100% VVPAT counting — and explained why. Here’s the verified version, minus the WhatsApp panic.

15 Jan 2026 · 5 minRead →

GST 2.0: a simpler tax — and a ₹48,000 crore question

In September 2025 India collapsed its tangle of GST slabs into a simpler structure — a genuine fix that also carries a real revenue cost.

12 Jan 2026 · 5 minRead →

Lateral entry into the bureaucracy: announced, then withdrawn

In August 2024 the government advertised 45 senior bureaucratic posts via lateral entry — then withdrew the ad within days amid a reservation row.

12 Jan 2026 · 4 minRead →

One farmer or farm worker dies by suicide every hour

The government’s own crime bureau recorded 11,290 suicides in the farming sector in 2022 — and the worst-hit are the landless who work the fields.

8 Jan 2026 · 4 minRead →

MGNREGA: rising demand, a budget that isn’t keeping up

The rural job guarantee is meant to be a floor under the poorest. Pending dues, flat budgets and a falling GDP share are testing it.

5 Jan 2026 · 5 minRead →

Balasore: 275 dead, and a safety warning that went unheeded

India’s deadliest rail disaster in decades was traced to a signalling error — months after an official had warned of exactly that risk.

28 Dec 2025 · 5 minRead →

The kitchen test: what food inflation did to your thali

Headline inflation can look calm while food prices swing hard. Tomatoes, onions and potatoes told the real story of 2024-25.

20 Dec 2025 · 4 minRead →

The air is killing thousands — and the data is disputed

A 2024 Lancet study links thousands of deaths in India’s cities to air pollution. The government calls the figures inconclusive.

10 Dec 2025 · 5 minRead →

India at 102: the hunger ranking the government rejects

The 2025 Global Hunger Index puts India 102nd of 123 countries. The government calls the index flawed. The child-nutrition data is harder to wave away.

15 Nov 2025 · 5 minRead →