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Saturday, November 22, 2025
HomeGround Reports

Ground Reports

How Hyderabad became a city of studios. Baahubali to Jawan & Fauji came calling

Hyderabad’s studios, from Ramoji Film City to Annapurna and Ramanaidu, are pulling big projects from Chennai to Mumbai. They want Hyderabad to be crowned as the country’s filmmaking capital.

India’s Chief of Information War during Op Sindoor night was fact-checker Mohammed Zubair

Zubair’s heroic effort on the frontlines of Pakistan’s disinformation war is being showered with praise. This is new for a journalist who is perennially in the Right wing’s line of fire.

India’s new search for Hindu warrior kings to celebrate. Vikramaditya, Suheldev to Agrasen

Many heroic Hindu rulers have had a rebirth of sorts. Folk tales are being dusted off and they’re now celebrated as cultural icons in Rajasthan, UP, MP, Maharashtra, Delhi, and Haryana.

Dry Gujarat has a drunk driving problem. ‘How many more accidents will it take?’

Despite prohibition, Gujarat sees a steady rise in alcohol-fuelled crashes. Luxury SUVs are mowing down families while survivors are pushed into perpetual nightmares.

First chips & condoms, now domestic workers in 10 mins. Apps pull strings, consumers rule

Apps like Insta Help, Broomees, Snabbit, and Pronto promise instant domestic workers to clean, wash, mop, cook. They’re sanitising domestic work — uniformed, transactional, no bonds.

‘World’s largest indigenous school’ in Odisha is a jail. ‘We’re all monkeys,’ says tribal student

The Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences is situated right next to the Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology where an alleged suicide of a student from Nepal and the mishandling of the resulting protest led to a diplomatic row.

Haryana has a bold, new film industry. It’s radical and not all jugaad

SUPVA is Haryana’s quietly radical experiment in cinema. Tucked away in Rohtak, it’s the only university in Asia offering full-time bachelor's degrees in core filmmaking disciplines.

‘Mujhe EMI bharna hai’—how voice tech is bringing millions of Indians into banking system

Using icons and speech, AI-enabled voice apps like Hello Ujjivan and Bhashini are building a new bridge to banking for India’s 18 crore low-literate citizens.

Bihar’s new Hindu Sherni just got out of jail. Hindutva gets louder, younger

Khushbu Pandey built a following with viral Hindutva videos and fiery speeches. Out after 48 days in jail over a rioting case, she’s planning a comeback and mentoring other “shernis”.

Fire in the Aravallis. Waste burning in Haryana is causing lung infection, rashes, nausea

The PCB’s closure notices to waste-burning units in Khori Khurd village have failed to stop the practice. A PIL now seeks to find out what’s being burned in these open-air incinerators.

On Camera

India’s labour policy left it unable to compete with other eastern economies: Nani A Palkhivala

Liberty without accountability is the freedom of the fool. Our concept of freedom will remain impoverished until it is deepened by liberal education, wrote Nani A Palkhivala in 1995.

At Charcha 2025: Local entrepreneurship, not just big IT, will drive next wave of distributed AI work

While global corporations setting up GCCs in India continue to express confidence in availability of skilled AI engineers, the panel argued that India’s real challenge lies elsewhere.

Tejas fighter aircraft crashes at Dubai Air Show, IAF confirms pilot’s death

This is the second such incident after a Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Tejas had crashed into a hostel on the outskirts of Jaisalmer in March last year.

A tribute to Tejas. India’s delay culture is the real enemy in the skies

It is a brilliant, reasonably priced, and mostly homemade aircraft with a stellar safety record; only two crashes in 24 years since its first flight. But its crash is a moment of introspection.