On March 20, 2024, the Bombay High Court convicted former police officer Pradeep Sharma in a 18-year-old “fake” encounter killing of Ramnarayan Gupta, who was allegedly from Chhota Rajan gang. Gupta was sentenced to life imprisonment. This is not the norm, but more of an exception.  Encounters are normalised in India. Recently, the UP police encountered a murder accused in Badaun district. The father of two boys who were murdered appealed to the police not to encounter the co-accused because they wanted some answers as to why the children were killed. This is an episode from April last ye ..read more

The inauguration of the Ram Mandir marks a significant chapter in India’s  history. The temple's construction replaced the 16th-Century Babri masjid, which was demolished by Hindu mobs in 1992, leading to nationwide riots and the tragic loss of nearly 2,000 lives, after the Supreme court allowed it.  In December 2023, reporter Shweta Desai travelled to Ayodhya before the temple’s inauguration on January 22, 2023. In this episode of the Suno India Show, Shweta talks to a community living just behind the newly constructed Ram Mandir and listens to the local communities, Hindus, Muslims ..read more

On March 11, 2024 a few months before the Lok Sabha Elections the central government notified the Citizenship (Amendment) Rules. This has come approximately four years after the Parliament passed the Citizenship (Amendment) Act in 2019. As per the amendment, the government can grant citizenship to Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Parsis, Jains, or Christians from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan on or before December 31,2014.. conspicuously leaving out Muslims. It was passed amid nation-wide protests as linking citizenship to religion goes against the secular nature of the constitution.  The ..read more

In 2013, Indian law codified workplace protection for working women, both in the formal and informal sectors under the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) (POSH) Act.  A report of Human Rights Watch says that India has failed 94 % of its women who work in the informal sector - this includes women who work as domestic help, sweepers, construction workers and so on. Suno India’s Sneha Richhariya spoke to domestic workers, Local committee members, lawyers and civil society organisations to understand how the law has played out for working women in ..read more

On 28th February 2024, Wakeel Hassan, Uttarakhand Tunnel rescue hero once again made headlines when his house was razed by the Delhi Development Authority (DDA).  The demolition of Hassan’s house was the most recent in the spate of evictions across the country. There have been questions over why the government disproportionately targets working-class and minority community people such as Wakeel Hassan. Here is an extended cut of an interview with Dr. Ghazala Jamil from an episode of the Suno India Show where Suno India’s Menaka Rao reported on the aftermath of the April 2022 Jahangirpuri ..read more

In this episode of The Suno India Show shorts, we talk about the live-in relationships as defined under Uttarakhand’s Uniform Civil Code Bill that was passed on February 7, 2024. Suno India’s Menaka Rao and Sneha Richhariya discuss the law threadbare and why it should matter to everyone in India.  See sunoindia.in/privacy-policy for privacy information ..read more

In this episode, we discuss the Supreme Court’s verdict on electoral bonds, a scheme that allowed anonymous donations to political parties. We explain why the court ruled it unconstitutional and what it means for Indian democracy. We are republishing a part of our episode from our show “Every Voice Matters'' which was originally published in 2019. The host and Suno-India editor Padma Priya then spoke to General Anil Verma of the Association of Democratic Reforms on this contentious topic.  The second part of the episode talks about electoral bonds. This is his take;  Also listen: Ele ..read more

Even though Kala-azar is closer to elimination in the country, questions related to how the disease spreads still remain unanswered. Only recently, scientists in India and Bangladesh have understood the dynamics of how Post kala-azar dermal leishmaniasis or PKDL, the skin manifestation of the disease, spreads kala-azar. For the third podcast in the series on kala-azar, Suno India’s Menaka Rao speaks to Dr Rahul Chaubey, entomologist at Kala-azar Medical Research Centre, Muzaffarpur to understand the latest in vector research. Reporting for this story was supported by the MSF-DNDi Grant on Negl ..read more

This was a very sombre Republic Day, coming in a few days after the inauguration of the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya on January 22, 2024, churning up questions on the secular nature of our country. The inauguration of the Ram Mandir marks a significant chapter in our country’s history. The temple's construction replaced the 16th-Century Babri masjid, which was demolished by Hindu mobs in 1992, leading to nationwide riots and the tragic loss of nearly 2,000 lives, after the Supreme court allowed it. This became a national event, even though we have a sizable population of Muslims ..read more

Kala Azar, a deadly parasitic disease, is very close to elimination in India. As per the World Health Organisation, the definition of elimination is the annual incidence of less than one case per 10,000 population at block level. The last few districts which are on the borderline remain in Jharkhand, and public officials appear confident that this year, the country may achieve the elimination target. The target has to be kept for 3 years for it to receive a WHO tag. Suno India is publishing a series of podcasts related to Kala Azar elimination. Suno India’s Menaka Rao travelled to Jharkhand an ..read more