There are no nationwide laws against it. The National Crime Records Bureau started collecting data on human sacrifice and witch-hunting as motives for murder in 2013, but stopped within two years. Even in that period, thousands of such crimes were recorded. The full spread and growth of such superstition-based crimes is unclear, but anecdotal evidence and the frequency with which such cases are reported in local newspapers suggest that they are flourishing. Godmen, many of whom believe in black magic and practice superstitious rituals, are getting more organised and growing in public stature. Ritual Killings: How Crimes of Superstition Thrive in the New India | Pulitzer Center 

“We got an anti-superstition law in Maharashtra, full of loopholes, after eighteen years of struggle,” Ranjana Gavande told me. “How can we even expect a central law?” Gavande is a grassroots worker with the Maharashtra Andhashraddha Nirmoolan Samiti, an organisation founded by Dabholkar, and has been an anti-superstition activist for twenty years. “Getting a central law is a distant dream,” she said. Karnataka passed an anti-superstition law of its own in 2017, but this too was a diluted version.

by Srishti Jaswal

october 2021

https://www.cenfa.org/it-is-not-tariff-which-we-should-worry-about-it-is-the-non-tariff-barriers-and-policies-everyone-should-worry-about/  Thomas Franco  It is the non-tariff barriers and policies everyone should worry about. it’s the invisible web of non-tariff barriers and secretive corporate-driven policies that are reshaping global trade.

 We have already reduced tariff on many items, we have reportedly agreed to buy MIG-21 fighter jets which Elon Musk himself called as Junk, our Commerce Minister was in US for days with no result . Adani may be arrested if he lands in US for investigation which probably we are trying to stop.

Our people were sent back with chains which some countries refused to accept and sent their own planes to bring them back with honor as they were not criminals.

Newspapers say 3 lakh students working in USA are going to be sent back.

By remaining as a slave of USA India cannot gain.  We have the highest population. We have purchasing power . We got the technology for steel making from USSR when US refused.  Whey they refused to give cryogenic engine technology for our space mission we developed ourselves.

We had all along supported Palestine but now we are exporting arms, ammunitions and missiles to Israel through Adani and the genocide continues.

We claimed to bring end to Russia Ukaraine war.  Now it has become a joke.  We claimed to be the G21 leader which was a rotating chair for an year without any gains for the people of the country. To please USA, Jio of Ambani and  Airtel of Sunil Bharti Mittal have agreed to buy space technology for Internet from Elon Musk’s space link. This will be dangerous for our Defense.

We have already allowed Elon Musk to have his Tesla show rooms at Delhi and Mumbai in favourable terms to him when Tesla sales are going down in US and other countries

These are some of the non-tariff measures visibly seen already and what is happening secretly is not known to anyone of us.

https://www.timesnownews.com/india/how-trumps-tariff-exemption-on-iphones-laptops-gives-india-20-edge-over-china-explained-article-151408160 

 From Start-up Mahakumbh to Ministerial Meltdown https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uT7dxUmep5g 
Moneylife  Apr 10, 2025 At the Startup Mahakumbh, Union Minister Piyush Goyal launched a scathing attack on Indian startups, criticizing their focus on food delivery and e-commerce over advanced tech like AI and semiconductors. But his remarks sparked a fierce backlash—from entrepreneurs, industry veterans like Mohandas Pai, and even supporters of the government.

https://moneylife.in/article/maha-misfire-at-mahakumbh-piyush-goyals-rant-exposes-the-frustration-among-entrepreneurs/76838.html  the start-up eco-system has managed to do what the government could not – provide jobs to millions of unemployed youth... 
Another X post on 31st March.. highlighted China’s systemic advantages: a more established eco-system, government-backed domestic venture capital providing greater stability, a deeper domestic footprint and layered support for innovation and larger global footprint. Mohandas Pai was even more direct, asking what Mr Goyal himself had done to support deep-tech innovation. He listed structural challenges: the ‘Angel Tax’, restrictions on institutional investments, Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI’s) harsh treatment of foreign investors and alternative investment funds (AIFs) and the unfriendly stance of the finance ministry towards start-ups

 What Piyush Goyal got wrong about Indian startups  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bXNcKrH4u0I   Goyal questioned their innovation, pointing out that many build on existing infrastructure – food delivery, ride-hailing, and edtech – without creating new technology. While his critique holds merit, it overlooks systemic issues: red tape, low R&D investment, and a lack of government support. .. Pooja Prasanna highlights the disparity in the Indian startup ecosystem as compared to China – massive public investment, fewer regulatory hurdles, and a culture that nurtures bold bets. In contrast, Indian startups face bureaucratic barriers, making risk-taking unviable. Critics like Mohandas Pai and founders argue that real innovation needs patient capital and policy support, not public shaming. Despite challenges, India’s deep-tech sector is growing, with 4,000 startups and rising investment. 

 This Is What a Digital Coup Looks Like  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZOoT8AbkNE| Carole Cadwalladr | TED Apr 10, 2025  #TED #TEDTalks #Politics
“We are watching the collapse of the international order in real time, and this is just the start,” says investigative journalist Carole Cadwalladr. In a searing talk, she details a fast-moving technological coup and the rise of the “broligarchy”: an unprecedentedly powerful class of tech executives (like Elon Musk) who are complicit in dismantling democracy and enabling authoritarian control across the world. She shares a guide on how to digitally disobey in this age of runaway corporate power, data harvesting and mass surveillance — and reminds you that you have more power than you think.

@kunalpurohit
Dear  @MumbaiPolice
: fight hate, not journalism. 

Received this notice from  @X
 about taking down my videos of Mumbai’s hate-filled #RamNavami rally.. Documenting hate is journalism. I won’t be taking down these videos. 

I have asked  @Support  to provide me a copy of the notice.  

https://freespeechcollective.in/par-yaad-rehti-bas-tareekh-gulfisha-fatima-a-saga-of-arrest-and-re-arrest/  Gulfisha has also begun to write very powerful and heart-wrenching poetry to capture the experiences of her incarceration alongwith making beautiful paintings and writing letters to her friends. 
Some links to reports and Gulfisha’s prison poetry, art and letters:

‘These Walls Around Me’: Gulfisha Fatima’s Prison Poetry https://thewire.in/rights/these-walls-around-me-gulfisha-fatimas-prison-poetry 

‘Days Become Like A Ladder’: Gulfisha Fatima’s Letters from Prison https://thewire.in/rights/days-become-like-a-ladder-gulfisha-fatimas-letters-from-prison 

Reclaiming resistance in an age of surveillance and authoritarianism  https://diem25.org/reclaiming-resistance-in-an-age-of-surveillance-and-authoritarianism/ on 26 March 2025

There is ...an urgency to understand what comes after and alongside the movements and the protests that can help break away from the endless cycle of oppressive State-sponsored institutional tactics. What kinds of political and cultural practices, actions, and organising locate temporary moments of a kind of ‘making visible’, systems of domination? What particular formations and forms of organising have changed in New York, Serbia, Berlin, and India that are addressing the entangled histories of the far right – both in its historical forms and new structures of fascism? What kind of organising is needed to problematise the institution of art, culture, education, and politics?

What does breaking away from operating within the dynamics of these systems look, and feel like? How do we move away from identitarian politics and present the potential for renewed thinking about our futures?

The intention must be to find new ways around collectivity and community. A vocabulary outside of its mass co-option of the language of resistance.

...Many of the answers lie in the histories of cultural production that privilege documentation of vulnerable histories, and have the potential of being erased, lost, and designated to the realm of marginal-centre binaries –  from participatory filmmaking including citizen cinema to radical publishing, exhibition-making, and autonomous collectives that refuse to be legible to state-sanctioned systems to even the simple act of making a reel to tell us a story or writing a statement as political prisoners.

https://www.livemint.com/news/us-news/shame-on-you-all-indian-origin-microsoft-engineer-confronts-bill-gates-satya-nadella-over-ai-use-by-israeli-military-11743959570657.html  “50,000 Palestinians in Gaza have been murdered with Microsoft technology. How dare you. Shame on all of you for celebrating on their blood,” Agrawal shouted. She condemned Microsoft’s reported $133 million cloud and AI contract with Israel’s Ministry of Defense and accused the company of enabling genocide in Gaza. 

Resignation letter circulates internally
Shortly after the protest, Agrawal sent a company-wide email announcing her resignation, effective April 11. In the email, accessed by The Verge, tech news website, she said, “I cannot, in good conscience, be part of a company that participates in this violent injustice.”

She referenced reports that Microsoft Azure and AI technologies support Israel’s military operations and surveillance, adding that “our labor powers this genocide.”

Calling Microsoft a “digital weapons manufacturer,”

https://www.livemint.com/companies/news/microsoft-ai-ceos-remarks-interrupted-by-pro-palestinian-protester-11743817748192.html

 Hastily pulled down Organiser article on Christian properties triggers a political storm in Kerala https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/kerala/hastily-pulled-down-organiser-article-on-christian-properties-triggers-a-political-storm-in-kerala/article69416957.ece
The article suggested that the land owned by the Catholic Church in India far surpassed Waqf properties in the country. Kerala CM, Leader of the Opposition V.D. Satheesan responded by stating that the article testified to the RSS’s impending move to wrest control of Church properties. 

https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/rahul-gandhi-land-under-catholic-churches-rss-organiser-article-waqf-bill-2704536-2025-04-05 Amid Waqf row, RSS report on land under Catholic churches gets Rahul Gandhi flak The article on the website of the Organiser, which has now been unpublished, claimed that Catholic institutions in India hold 7 crore hectares of land, making them the largest non-governmental landowner.