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Sunday, November 23, 2025
HomeGround Reports

Ground Reports

Surinder Sonia made Chamkila famous but Imtiaz Ali’s film reduces her to a footnote

Amar Singh Chamkila glosses over the fact that Surinder Sonia was a powerful figure in Punjab’s pop culture milieu in the 1980s.

Portable MRI, water from air—Indian deep tech startups thriving with incubators, govt funding

Uravu Labs makes water from air, Saaf Biogas makes zero-emission gas & Voxelgrids has built the first made-in-India MRI. Innovation thrives in intersection of academia, entrepreneurship, and govt funding.

Muslims say law and order has improved in western UP. ‘But voting for BJP against our imaan’

Muslims under the Yogi Adityanath govt 'feel secure' when stepping out of the home at night, and acknowledge that incidents of snatching, looting, and molestation have reduced. But voting is a different issue.

Purvanchal’s migrant workers are desperate & poor. But they are determining India’s politics

Purvanchal's workers travel with hopes and hardships on ‘migrant trains’, leaving their families behind. Their labour fuels the economy and their vote shapes the political landscape.

Tired and invisible—India’s mental health caregivers are now forming support groups

The Mental Healthcare Act says that a patient can’t be forced to get admitted to a hospital and that they have the right to refuse treatment –except in severe cases. However, it remains silent on what the caregiver should do in such cases.

Election fever & extreme heat alert—state govts yet to learn from Kharghar deaths

On 16 April last year, heat complications killed 14 people after a political event in Maharashtra’s Kharghar. But peak-heat rallies with large crowds are still a cause for concern.

Chamkila died over 3 decades ago but in his Punjab village bitterness, regret linger

In Chamkila’s village there is an undercurrent of bitterness, regret — Mehsampur has the reputation of being a killing field.

Dalit housing, Ambedkar Gram to UPSC hubs. Are Mayawati’s legacies surviving in UP today?

Over a decade out of office as Uttar Pradesh CM, Mayawati’s political influence is thinning. Mayawati is silent, but stones still speak.

Villagers use Saraswati riverbed for cow dung, cremation, crop. ‘Where do we keep cattle?’

The Saraswati went extinct thousands of years ago. Now its evidence is on the same path. This despite governments heavily investing in the search of the 'mighty river'.

India’s tech bros’ new fad is Indic AI — Krutrim to AppsForBharat. The answer to ChatGPT

The indigenous AI’s idea is rooted in the Hindu ecosystem’s version of history, wherein India was the epicenter of development, up until the onslaught of invaders.

On Camera

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 crash: Amid taunts from across border, a Pakistani pilot’s brother voices shared grief & solidarity

Speaking to ThePrint, Salman Akram urges dignity in tragedy, recalling the loss of his brother, Wing Commander Nauman Akram, in similar crash & the mockery his family faced after.

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.