Factual blogs

Navid Afkari, 27 was sentenced to death in 2018 for the murder of a security guard during the nationwide anti government protests going on. He was convicted of “voluntary homicide” after stabbing to death Hossein Torkman. Afkari had said in a leaked recording that he had been tortured to make a confession. Amnesty International has called this incident as a “travesty of justice”. The world player’s association has seen this incident as unjust and said that Iran could face expulsion from world sport for such a horrendous act. Afkari was reportedly extracted under torture and convicted on the basis of confessions aired on television. The international Olympic committee has also mourned the death of Afkari and was “deeply upset” that pleas from several athletes and other international institutions around the world was gone unheard. Afkari was executed in a prison in Shiraz and according to his lawyer was forbidden to meet his family which is a prerequisite in Iranian Law bef

Three Bills on agriculture reforms were introduced in Parliament on Tuesday to replace the ordinances issued during lockdown. Opposition parties and farmer groups are opposing the move to enact amendments to the Essentials Commodities Act, new Laws to bypass the start APMA Act and to facilitate contract farming. Introducing The Farmers Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotions and Facilities) Bill, and The Farmers Empowerment and Protection Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Bill, Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar said “The New Law would benefit farmer by empowering them to decide the price of their produce, which was earlier determined by the traders. It would encourage private investment and technology introduction in the Sector". Congress MPs Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury and Gaurav Gogoi opposed the Bills, accusing the Centre of grabbing the rights of farmers and handing it over to corporates, adding that the States were not consulted. “It is beyond the legislati

The Indian economy is in a turmoil right now with the GDP declining at behemoth rates, unemployment rates surging and no hope for a turnaround in near future. The people in power blame it on the ongoing pandemic and how due to the lockdown every industry is shut and they have no fault in the occurrence of this. However, this trend of declining growth rates and increase of unemployment rates has been prevailing since last year and experts had already predicted such an outcome before the pandemic as there was a lack of concrete provisions which would really help the secondary and tertiary sector in the last few budgets. It has been seen that quarter after quarter, the GDP growth had been decreasing from 8% in 2016 to 4% in 2020, which is blatantly low for a developing country like India with such a humongous youth population and prospects for growth. This blog will further explicate on this issue. Rightnow economy is in a downward spiral. The Economist Intelligence Unit (London) just low

Facebook has found itself at the centre of attraction in India following a report published in Wall Street Journal claiming that Facebook ignored applying its hate speech rules to a BJP leader's post in India. This report has raised questions over the strong connections between the ruling party (BJP) and Facebook, putting into the role of a top executive of the social media platform, Ankhi Das. The report published in Wall Street Journal claimed that Ankhi Das, Facebook’s public policy director for India, South and Central Asia, told employees that the initiating punitive actions against BJP leader's indulging in hate propaganda. Now this report has erupted a political fight between Congress and the BJP on the issue with the opposition demanding a free and fair probe into Facebook’s operations in India. The Congress is using the issue to set the stage for the Parliament's monsoon session which is likely to be called in September. The BJP and the government have, howev

On the first anniversary of the reading down of Article 370 , the kashmir valley continues to be subjected to various restrictions and proper Internet services are still barred. Many political leaders are being under detention or house arrest. Last year on 5 August the government of India revoked the special status, or limited autonomy, granted under Article 370 of Indian Constitution to Jammu and Kashmir. This revoke led to breaking up of Jammu and Kashmir into directly administered by the government of India : one that combines Hindu- majority Jammu and Muslim- majority kashmir, and Buddhist - majority Ladakh.    One year- where do things stand?  At the time of revoking, it was stated that that reading down Article 370 would guide development and several industries would set up shop in kashmir but, this has proved to be a futile hope. The covid pandemic has made any nation wide reforms difficult to implement but even before the nation wide shutdown in March, there had be