27 July 2021
Pandemic’s brutal hit on families: the costs of ICU hospitalization for COVID-19 are equivalent to nearly 16 months of work for a typical Indian day laborer or 7-10 months for salaried or self-employed workers
Climate change: Torrential rains kill over 160 in India, dozens trapped in landslides
Pegasus Snoop Gate: new names on the surveillance list include industrialists Naresh Goyal, officials in Reliance and Adani, heads of Public Sector Companies, Kejriwal’s aide, PMO and NITI Aayog officials, Enforcement Directorate officials; as the Modi government denies wrongdoing, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee announced a commission of inquiry into the alleged surveillance of phones using the Pegasus spyware
India’s coal dependence: two of the top 10 most polluting coal fired power plants in the world are in India; “India can potentially save 89.4 billion rupees ($1.2 billion) a year by shutting down some old coal-burning power plants and allowing newer ones to run for longer hours”
Violent internal border clashes within India: Home Minister Amit Shah goes missing as violent border clashes between Assam and Mizoram leads to deaths of police officials; both state governments are run by BJP-led NDA alliance, and are publicly trading barbs at each other; most mainstream TV media goes silent on the issue