· August, 2012

Stories about India from August, 2012

India: Social Media Blamed for Fueling Assam Unrest

  23 August 2012

'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

  19 August 2012

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

  19 August 2012

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

  19 August 2012

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

  18 August 2012

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...

Bhutan: Trending On Twitter For Helping India

  6 August 2012

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

  3 August 2012

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: BRICS vs. NATO – Battlefield of Ideas on Interventions

  2 August 2012

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.