On March 27, 2023 the Supreme Court released a death row convict, Narayan Chetanram Chaudhary on ground that he was a juvenile at the time of his arrest. Narayan convicted for gruesome murders in Pune where eight people were killed in 1994. Despite being on the death row, Narayan decided to educate himself. This journey led him to a path where he realised he was a juvenile at the time of offence, which was finally proved this year. In this episode, Suno India's Menaka Rao speaks with Narayan and his lawyer, Shreya Rastogi. Rastogi who is the founding member of Project 39a and the director of D ..read more

In the past week, Manipur has been plagued by reports of violence. Clashes erupted on May 3, with images of angry mobs setting properties ablaze. The army was called in on May 4 to assist law enforcement, as a curfew was imposed in eight districts. The immediate violence erupted after a 'Tribal Solidarity March' protesting a court order directing the consideration of Meiteis for Scheduled Tribe status. The state government reported that 60 people died because of the violence in the state.  Now that the violence appears to have died down, there is an uneasy calm. We need to understand not ..read more

Since January, top Indian wrestlers have been protesting over the lack of action against the head of the country’s wrestling federation, Brijbhushan Sharan Singh, accused of sexual harassment. This accusation is not the first in Indian sports.    In this episode, our host, Sneha Richhariya speaks to senior sports journalist Sharda Ugra about the conditions in which young athletes train in India, the hits and misses of the coverage of wrestler’s protest at Jantar Mantar, about her experiences reporting on sexual harassment in sports and the need for proper redressal mechanisms in spor ..read more

In 2019, the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment and The National Drug Dependence Treatment Centre released a report called- National Survey on Extent and Pattern of Substance Use. At the national level, an estimated 2.9 crore of people in India are dependent on alcohol. About 25 lakh Indians are dependent on cannabis such as charas, ganja, and 28 lakh Indians are dependent on opioid substances such as heroin.  In this episode, Suno India’s Ayesha Fatima explores what addiction is like for addicts themselves, as well as their family members. Ayesha speaks with two former addicts wh ..read more

On April 15, alleged mafia-turned-politician Atiq Ahmed and his brother, Ashraf were killed while in police custody and in the presence of media persons. The police allege that three assailants shot them at close range. The entire incident took place on live television. Despite questions being raised on this custodial killing, there also appears to be public approval. Such “encounter” killings of alleged rapists or alleged gangsters are often celebrated by the public. In fact, Ahmed’s son, Asad was killed in a so-called police encounter just a few days before the incident after which Uttar Pra ..read more

In this episode, Sanaullah Khan speaks to women running small businesses in Hyderabad on how the increasing digitisation of payments is affecting them. He also speaks to Shrikant Lakshmanan who is an expert in the field of digital payments and co-founded a consumer initiative called Cashless Consumer, which studies digital payments.  Sanaullah Khan was an intern with Suno India. References Disconnected: How Digital India Is Leaving Women Behind National Family Health Survey (NFHS-5) See sunoindia.in/privacy-policy for privacy information ..read more

Tourism contributes to more than 15 percent of jobs in India, as per 2022 figures by the Ministry of Tourism. The recent Union Budget was a mixed bag for this industry. The good news came from announcements to give a boost to domestic tourism. But for those who cater to international travel, the budget was disappointing. There is an increase in tax collected at source (TCS) from 5 percent to 20 percent. Domestic travellers who want to travel abroad will have to pay 15 percent more for TCS as compared to earlier- substantially increasing the costs.  Independent journalist Aruna Chandaraju ..read more

This is part 2 of a miniseries examining how the Central govt is limiting public access to information with laws and amendments. In the Data Protection Bill, the Central government has proposed an amendment for the RTI Act. With this amendment the government seeks to protect the privacy of lawmakers by changing 8.1 (j) section of the RTI Act.  In this episode of The Suno India Show, host Suryatapa Mukherjee is speaking to Nikhil Dey about how the Right To Information Act is being diluted over the years with various amendments and how that affects people seeking information about the gover ..read more

In February 2023, 18-year-old Darshan Solanki ended his life barely three months into his Chemical Engineering course at IIT Bombay. In this episode of The Suno India Show, host Suryatapa Mukherjee spoke to Shreeja Rao, a first-year law student, about her experiences in educational institutions and the solutions needed so that students like her can achieve their dreams. Months before Dalit student’s death, IIT-Bombay surveyed caste-discrimination on campus - The Hindu  If IITs Had More Dalit Professors, Would Aniket Ambhore Be Alive?  How India’s caste system limits diversity in scie ..read more

This is the second episode in the two-part series on the crackdown on child marriages in Assam. Since February 2, the Assam government has arrested more than 3000 people for violating the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006. Some were also arrested under the stringent Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012 or POCSO that can attract punishment up to life imprisonment.  Suno India’s Menaka Rao spoke to Bharati Ali about the consequences of this kind of punitive action against child marriage, Bharati Ali a child rights activist based in Delhi. She is the executive director ..read more