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Dalit, tribal students face struggle in Indian schools

A report by India’s Ministry of Education highlights the high dropout rate among students from Dalit and tribal backgrounds. The data released by former federal education minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank is contained in the Unified District Information on School Education (UDISE) 2019-20 report.

Midday meals leave a long-lasting impact: study

Girls who had access to the free lunches provided at government schools, had children with a higher height-to-age ratio than those who did not, says a new study on the inter-generational benefits of India’s midday meal scheme published in Nature Communications this week. Using nationally representative data on cohorts of mothers and their children spanning […]

Some 30 Christians arrested under Uttar Pradesh’s anti-conversion law

Police recently arrested nine Christians in Uttar Pradesh for allegedly violating the state’s controversial anti-conversion law, which criminalises religious conversion and denies bail to those accused. The case is cited in a study by International Christian Concern (ICC), a Christian advocacy group, which reports a recent rise in anti-Christian complaints. The document quotes one of […]

Tripura Church celebrates first World Day of Grandparents

Many parishes of Agartala diocese in the north-eastern state of Tripura on July 25 celebrated the first World Day of Grandpa-rents, declared by Pope Francis. “Our parishes have traditionally been celebrating the Senior Citizens Day on the Sunday prior or after the feast of Saints Joachim and Anna, the grandpa-rents of Jesus. This year we […]

Catholic priest arrested in Tamil Nadu for hate speech

A Catholic priest in Tamil Nadu’s Kanniyakumari district was arrested July 24 for spreading hate and enmity between religious groups. Father George Ponnaiah, parish priest from Panavilai, triggered a row by allegedly making disparaging remarks about ‘Bharat Mata’ and Hindu religion. The Kuzhithurai diocese condemned his comments made on July 18. Addressing a meeting at […]

Muslim businessman aids church construction in Abu Dhabi

An Indian Muslim billionaire businessman, based in United Arab Emirates, has come forward to help build a Protestant church in its capital city of Abu Dhabi. Yusuff Ali Musaliam Veettil Abdul Kader, popularly known as M A Yusuff Ali on July 23 donated 500,000 dirhams (US$136,147 or 10,138,771 Indian rupees) for the construction of a […]

Indian bishop condemns Pegasus spying scandal

Media reports claim that Israel-made spyware Pegasus was believed to have been used to track more than 300 Indian phone numbers including those of journalists, politicians, government officials and rights activists. The Israeli cyber weapon company NSO Group was also fined in 2019 for hacking phones of around 1,400 users around the world, including 121 […]

Delhi archdiocese gets new auxiliary bishop

Pope Francis on July 16 appointed Fr Deepak Valerian Tauro, rector of St Albert’s College in Ranchi, as the auxiliary bishop of the archdiocese of Delhi.