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What India’s draft digital privacy law says — and how it compares with data protection laws elsewhere https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/explained-economics/india-draft-digital-privacy-law-data-protection-laws-8279199/
The reworked version of the data protection Bill, released three months after the Govt withdrew an earlier draft, eases cross-border data flows and increases penalties for breaches. But it gives the Centre wide-ranging powers and prescribes very few safeguards.

two potentially significant red flags: a near blanket exemption for government agencies from complying with some of the more onerous requirements under the Bill, and a dilution of the remit of the proposed Data Protection Board, which is mandated to oversee the provisions of the proposed legislation.

This larger policy includes a comprehensive digital India Act that would eventually replace the existing IT Act, the new data protection Bill that has just been unveiled, and the new telecom Bill that was put in the public domain last month.

In contrast, the landmark GDPR, in force since May 2018, is clearly focused on privacy and requires individuals to give explicit consent before their data can be processed. A pair of sub-legislation — the Digital Services Act (DSA) and the Digital Markets Act (DMA) — take off from the GDPR’s overarching focus on the individual’s right over her data. The DSA focuses on issues such as regulating hate speech, counterfeit goods etc. while the DMA defines a new category of “dominant gatekeeper” platforms, and is focused on uncompetitive practices and the abuse of dominance by these players.

-The Original Thackeray: 7 Things About Prabodhankar You Must Know. Many don’t know that Bal Thackeray’s father was a social reformer, a political activist and an eminent author. 20 Nov 2016. “Prabodhankar’s Hindutva was not against any religion.” . ...Prabodhankar was a face of anti-Brahminical movement....Prabodhankar was aggressive about women’s rights and education. 

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On the Cusp: Reframing Democracy and Well-Being in Korchi, India by Neema Pathak Broome, Shrishtee Bajpai and Mukesh Shende  https://beyonddevelopment.net/on-the-cusp-reframing-democracy-and-well-being-in-korchi-india/

Gram sabhas and the MGS face numerous internal and external challenges, the most significant among them being existence within the nation-state and its adopted exploitative capitalist model of economy and representative electoral democracy. Party politics, having entered all other levels of governance, now strives to control the gram sabhas. The PRS institutions at all levels are beginning to feel threatened by the emerging power of the gram sabhas, creating friction with the MGS. Religious right-wing (Hindu in this case) and cultural right-wing tribal outfits are using identity politics for political gain, some of these are supported by the mining companies and often create hurdles for the MGS and gram sabhas opposed to mining. Many local activists, including one of the core team members of this study, have been imprisoned under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), which gives the state draconian powers to arrest without a warrant or evidence and keep people in police custody without bail for a certain period of time.

The government’s decentralisation efforts are different from the people’s movement towards self-rule and direct democracy in that the former remains fixated on the external structure rulebooks at the cost of the spirit of decentralisation, while the latter focuses on the spirit by constantly adapting and evolving strategies, structures, rules and operations to address the opportunities and challenges encountered while ensuring that the core principles of transparent dialogue, consensus-based decision-making and equity are not compromised. As a Gondi proverb says, Changla Jeevan Jage Mayan Saathi Sapalorukoon Apu Apuna Jababdarita Jaaniv Ata Pahe (“to achieve well-being, everyone needs to know what their responsibility is”). The MGS members believe that to be more effective politically, different taluka-level collectives need to come together to form a district-level federation and must also have their delegates in the state legislature, which is yet to be achieved. They hope to slowly move in that direction. 

Transformations - Wellbeing https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vD3VxRvIeuo Kalpavriksh Environment Action Group A federation of 90 village assemblies is attempting to transform local society, politics, ecology and economy, in the process articulating their own conceptions of wellbeing
Around the world indigenous people are resisting mainstream development models which have devastated local biodiversity, threatened species with extinction and changed the earth’s climate.
Many communities are creating transformative alternatives to challenge such ideas of development.
Korchi taluka in Gadchiroli district of Maharashtra State in India, is one such region where the local villages are moving towards social, political, economic and ecological transformation and are re-defining development and wellbeing.