India Archive

The Congress-ruled Himachal Pradesh government has officially introduced a new Widow and Orphan Cess of 60 paise per litre on both petrol and high-speed diesel. This latest regulatory addition pushes fuel prices higher across the state. Taking effect from midnight on August 11th, the new cess was enacted following a formal notification issued by the State Taxes and Excise Department on Tuesday.

The anti-BJP cabal has consistently been peddling false and alarmist narratives about the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. In a latest such bid, actor and Sanatan Dharma hater Prakash Raj has claimed that his name has been arbitrarily removed from the electoral rolls in Bengaluru during the ongoing SIR of voter lists.

On 8th August, a mythological dance drama performance organized in Kolkata, West Bengal, sparked intense public outrage over what many audience members viewed as a deeply offensive and improper presentation of Goddess Kali. The controversial performance was produced and presented by the dance troupe Nitya – Faculty of Sight at the prominent Mohit Mancha auditorium located in the Tala Park area.

On December 17, 2024, during an official ceremony in Jammu marking the inauguration of an intensive Special Operations Group (SOG) training initiative, an un-blurred photograph released to the public confirmed a significant institutional development within India’s national security framework. Standing alongside senior law enforcement officials was Colonel Vikrant Prasher, a decorated officer from the Indian Army’s 10th Battalion, The Parachute Regiment (Special Forces), officially wearing the insignia of the Jammu and Kashmir Police.

At the rocky apex of Shivagange Hills, rising 4,488 feet above the plains of Bengaluru Rural district, ancient granite terraces give way to sheer vertical drops wrapped in mist. It was near one of these precipices, steeped in twelfth-century legend, that the digital footprint of a 31-year-old cybersecurity expert abruptly ended. Advait Upadhyay—an alumnus of the Indian Institute of Technology with a master's degree in cybersecurity, residing in East Bengaluru's Kadugodi neighborhood and employed at a Whitefield finance firm—disappeared on Friday, August 7, 2026, during a solo morning trek.

Behind the heavy, surveillance-monitored iron gates of 'Parmeshwari Bhavan'—a sprawling half-acre estate tucked away in the market alleyways of Jamalpur Bazaar in Bihar’s Khagaria district—lay a world completely divorced from the rural poverty surrounding it. Within its perimeter stood an opulent residence featuring imported Italian marble floors, a private cinematic theater, a luxury swimming pool, and a network of over 25 high-definition CCTV cameras continuously scanning the entry points.

In a high-security cell inside New Delhi’s Tihar Jail, a 44-year-old Indian Air Force (IAF) Wing Commander sits in solitary isolation. For two months following his arrest, he has refrained from filing even a single application for bail. Once an operative trusted with unit deployments and operational intelligence, the mid-level officer now stands accused of treason under the Official Secrets Act (OSA), facing up to 14 years in prison.

Under heavy security and police escort, a cold quiet hung over Ahilyanagar as the mortal remains of Dheeraj Pardeshi were brought home. What began as a routine maintenance call on a Friday evening in a quiet municipal ward rapidly turned into a tragedy that halted a city’s administration, brought thousands of demonstrators onto a national highway, and required intervention from the highest levels of Maharashtra’s state government.

On August 7, 2026, twenty-four hours after the Bombay High Court delivered a historic conviction against Tehelka founder Tarun Tejpal for the 2013 rape of a junior colleague, one of India’s most prominent documentary filmmakers stepped forward not to applaud the judicial triumph of a workplace survivor, but to publicly defend her rapist.

On August 10th, thousands of students joined a massive "Vidhan Sabha Gherao" march, heading toward the Jharkhand state assembly in Ranchi. Their primary grievance revolves around widespread irregularities and administrative failures across several key recruitment examinations. As these student-led demonstrations continue to gain momentum throughout Jharkhand, the Ranchi Police officially announced that they are prepared to deploy pellet guns against the student marchers in the event of an "emergency."