India: Dowry And The Boys

Nitisha Pandey at Youth Ki Awaaz discusses the current market rates for grooms in India and asks:

Does a boy’s parents’ give him good education only to get a handsome dowry?

India: Social Media Censorship to Contain ‘Cyber-Terrorism'?

'Are we going to follow the footsteps of Pakistan and China and turn into a Blockistan?' The Indian government has cracked down on various social media sites; some Facebook pages and Twitter handles have also been blocked.

India: Govt. Guidelines For #SocialMedia Use

"I am quite confident that these guidelines won’t have much of an impact when the Government itself is defying most of them while communicating with people".

India: Social Media Blamed for Fueling Assam Unrest

'A temporary ban was put on bulk SMS and MMS. Local police swung into action and began arresting people forwarding ‘hate' SMS examples. Social media sites were warned to monitor and remove inflammatory content. About 310 webpages were blocked.'

India: Uraniam Contamination in Jaduguda Kept Classified

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...

India: Assam Riots – Truth Vs Hype

In July, clashes between indigenous Bodo tribes and Muslim settlers in the Indian State of Assam broke out which lead to riots, killings and mass displacement. After almost a month the situation is yet to calm down as politicians and organisations on both sides resorted to spread fear and exaggerated claims on the issue of illegal migration.

India: Bullying in Educational Institutions

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.

India: Government Bans Bulk SMS To Stop Rumors

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...

India: Pictures of Varalakshmi Vratham Festival

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.

Bhutan: Trending On Twitter For Helping India

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.

Bangladesh: Save Sundarbans’ Bengal Tigers

Global Tiger Day is observed in 13 countries on the 29th of July each year. This year the slogan in Bangladesh was 'Save Sundarbans Tiger Landscape'. Protests were also made against construction of a coal based power plant project near the forests which will endanger the tigers and other wildlife.

Global: ‘International Relations’ Out of the Classroom Onto the Web

"IR has a new dimension and is no longer the subject of a few for discussion." - Former IR Student. "Blogging is not an end in itself or a replacement for real research." - IR Professor

Macedonia: Decades-Old International Poetry Festival in Focus

Portugese filmmaker André Soares published a short video documentary about the Struga Poetry Evenings, an international poetry festival held in Macedonia since 1962.

Global: BRICS vs. NATO – Battlefield of Ideas on Interventions

China’s and Russia’s recent decision to veto the United Nations Security Council resolution against Syria -has reignited the debate over the relationship between 'new' powers Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa - the BRICS - with 'old' powers - NATO - in international interventions.