In April, the Philippines Navy received its first BrahMos ground launched cruise anti-ship missile, ordered in a US$275 million January 2022 contract and to be employed by its Marines as the Land Based Weapon System (LBWS) in April 2025. Recently the Philippines Army has indicted its own interest to acquire as many as additional nine […]
Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM) and other farmers’ groups carried out tractor parades in areas across India on the country’s Republic Day on Sunday, January 26. Their national mobilization was in an effort to continue putting pressure on the central government to respond to their demands.
The demands of farmers include a legally guaranteed minimum support price (MSP) for all farm produce, the withdrawal of the draft National Policy Framework on Agricultural Marketing (NPFAM), the withdrawal of all pending cases against farmer leaders, and loan waivers for farmers and farm workers, among others.
As the Indian Supreme Court prepares to hear the landmark case challenging India’s Marital Rape Exception, Kanaksha Kataria discusses how this colonial-era law violates a multitude of constitutional rights. Drawing on leading constitutional frameworks, she argues the legal immunity granted to husbands creates a sanctioned hierarchy of oppression that fundamentally undermines married women’s constitutional rights to equality, dignity, and bodily autonomy.
The Marital Rape Exception (MRE) in Indian criminal law stands as one of the most patriarchal yet contentious vestiges of colonial jurisprudence. MRE exemplifies the deep contradiction between conventional patriarchal norms and basic constitutional guarantees of equality, dignity and autonomy. As the Supreme Court prepares to address this issue in Hrikesh Sahoo v. State of Karnataka, the fundamental question emerges yet again: can the legal immunity granted to husbands for non-consensual sexual acts within marriage withstand constitutional scrutiny?
This analysis evaluates the constitutional invalidity of MRE via several lenses. First, drawing on Tarunabh Khaitan’s framework of discrimination law, it is argued that MRE fails the stringent standards of Articles 14 and 15 of the Indian Constitution. Second, it is argued that MRE transgresses beyond equality provisions and ruthlessly undermines married women’s rights to dignity, personal liberty, and freedom from exploitation under Articles 19, 21, and 23.
Neoteric jurisprudential developments make the MRE’s constitutional position progressively untenable. The Supreme Court’s interpretations in Navtej Singh Johar v. Union of India(decriminalising consensual same-sex relations) and Joseph Shine v. Union of India(decriminalising adultery) have signalled progressive shifts, bolstering the constitutional foundation for personal autonomy and sexual agency. Yet, the existence of MRE creates a paradoxical constitutional framework where married women possess fewer rights over their bodily autonomy than their unmarried counterparts. This legal matrix creates a sanctioned hierarchy of oppression by actively perpetuating a hierarchal regime of rights protections, effectively institutionalising gender-based discrimination.
The persistence of this legally sanctioned hierarchy is understood through Rochana Bajpai’s concept of the “normative deficit” in the Indian constitutional framework. While Bajpai originally developed this argument to analyse group-differentiated rights, its application to MRE reveals why orthodox and constitutionally infirm value systems continue to undermine fundamental protections.
Violations of Article 14: the Right to Equality and Non-discrimination
MRE violates this principle by creating an arbitrary distinction between married and unmarried women when it comes to sexual autonomy and protection from sexual violence. To analyse the unconstitutionality of the MRE under Article 14, one must apply the two well-established tests: (1) the reasonable classification test, and (2) the arbitrariness test.
1. The test of reasonable classification Under this test, a law must satisfy two conditions:
The classification must be based on an intelligible differential.
There must be a rational nexus between the differentia and the object sought to be achieved by the law.
A. Intelligible differentia Intelligible differentia denotes a criterion to test reasonable classification. It is a lucid and discernible ground that distinguishes one group of people or situations from another for legislative purposes. It is the parameter which justifies treating groups distinctly. MRE classifies women based on their marital status. It distinguishes between married and unmarried women. This classification is prima facie based on intelligible differentia. It recognises the status of marriage as a legal relationship distinct from other relationships. So, it makes a clear distinction between married women and unmarried women regarding sexual intercourse and consent.
B. Rational nexus However, the differentia must not only be intelligible, but it must also bear a rational connection to the object of the law. The object of rape laws, as defined under Section 375 of the Indian Penal Code, is to protect a woman’s bodily integrity and sexual autonomy by criminalising non-consensual sexual intercourse. MRE undermines this objective by exempting husbands from prosecution for non-consensual sexual acts within marriage. This exemption does not serve the goal of protecting women from sexual violence. Instead, it creates a legal loophole where a woman’s consent is devalued simply because of her marital status i.e. her relationship with the very perpetrator of the crime.
The Supreme Court has repeatedly held that laws failing to achieve their stated objectives are unconstitutional. In State of West Bengal v. Anwar Ali Sarkarand EP Royappa v. State of Tamil Nadu, the Court emphasised that the classification must have a rational nexus to the purpose of the law. In this case, the object of protecting women from sexual violence is undermined by the distinction based on marital status, as MRE excludes married women from the same legal protections available to unmarried women. Thus, it violates the core tenets of equality enshrined under Article 14 of the Indian Constitution.
C. Strict scrutiny MRE should be subject to the strict scrutiny standard because it involves a fundamental right – the right to bodily autonomy and sexual integrity under Article 21. When a law infringes upon fundamental rights, the courts are required to apply strict scrutiny, which requires that the law:
Must have a compelling state interest, and
Must be narrowly tailored to achieve that interest in the least restrictive way.
In this case, the purported compelling state interest is the preservation of the sanctity of marriage. However, this interest cannot justify the violation of a woman’s fundamental right to bodily autonomy. The preservation of marriage cannot be elevated above an individual’s fundamental right to consent or refuse sexual intercourse. In other words, the object of “preserving marriages” based on patriarchal notions cannot override constitutionally guaranteed fundamental rights. As the Supreme Court held in Shayara Bano v. Union of India, laws that operate on patriarchal assumptions about women’s roles in marriage are inherently discriminatory and violate constitutional principles of equality.
Further, the law is not narrowly tailored to achieve its objective. Even if protecting the institution of marriage is considered a legitimate interest, MRE is an overly broad measure. Instead of addressing the complexities of marital relationships through other legal mechanisms, MRE gives blanket immunity to husbands. Here stripping married women of their fundamental right to bodily integrity is overlooked and in turn, criminal impunity is extended. Under strict scrutiny, this law would clearly fail because it is neither justified by a compelling interest nor narrowly tailored to achieve that interest without infringing on fundamental rights.
2. The test of arbitrariness As established in Maneka Gandhi v. Union of India and EP Royappa, arbitrariness is antithetical to equality under Article 14. A law is arbitrary when it acts irrationally, disproportionately, or without a proper guiding principle. MRE creates an arbitrary distinction between married and unmarried women by assuming that married women, by their marital status, have consented to all future sexual acts with their husbands.
This assumption of irrevocable consent is rooted in patriarchal norms that view marriage as a license for the husband’s unchecked control over the wife’s body. Such an outdated notion is arbitrary because it disregards the evolving understanding of marriage as a partnership between equals, where both parties retain their autonomy. By treating sexual consent within marriage differently than outside marriage, MRE operates irrationally, disproportionately impacting married women and denying them the equal protection of the law. This implies that legally such women are not victims of sexual abuse simply because the perpetrator is their husband.
As Justice Nariman explained in Shayara Bano, manifest arbitrariness includes laws that operate disproportionately and without adequate guiding principles. MRE allows married women to be subjected to sexual violence without legal recourse, which clearly meets the definition of manifest arbitrariness. It is excessive, irrational, and fails to recognise married women as autonomous individuals deserving of equal protection under the law.
Violations of Article 15: Prohibition of Discrimination MRE also violates Article 15(1) of the Constitution, which prohibits discrimination on grounds of sex. Khaitan’s work provides a framework for understanding how the MRE discriminates against women by reinforcing harmful gender stereotypes and creating an unequal legal regime for married women.
1. Anti stereotyping principle The anti-stereotyping principle, as highlighted in Anuj Garg and Navtej Singh Johar, prohibits laws that are based on gendered stereotypes. The MRE rests on the archaic notion that women, once married, implicitly consent to sexual relations with their husbands in semper. This perpetuates the stereotype of women as submissive sexual partners who are bound by the norms of marriage. It reinforces the damaging stereotype that marriage strips women of their individuality, compelling them to sacrifice even their most fundamental rights in the name of preserving peace.
By allowing husbands to act on these stereotypes with impunity, MRE effectively reduces the married woman’s sexual autonomy to that of her husband’s property, violating the anti-stereotyping principle under Article 15. The concept of marital consent as irrevocable and automatic has no place in a modern constitutional framework based on equality and autonomy.
2. Intersectionality and gender discrimination Khaitan also emphasises the importance of considering intersectionality when analysing gender-based discrimination. In this context, MRE discriminates against women based not just on their gender but also on their marital status. Married women are subjected to a higher threshold of rights violations due to their gender and their relationship status resulting in multi-dimensional discrimination. The Court’s evolving jurisprudence on equality, especially in Joseph Shine, highlights how patriarchy and marriage norms have historically suppressed women’s autonomy, and how such suppression cannot be constitutionally justified under Article 15.
The broader constitutional implications: Articles 19, 21, and 23 The constitutional violations stemming from MRE extend beyond Articles 14 and 15. Article 19(1)(a) protects personal expression, which includes sexual autonomy. By legally depriving married women of their right to say “no,” MRE silences a critical aspect of self-expression. Additionally, Article 21’s guarantee of life and personal liberty has been liberally construed to include dignity and bodily integrity (per Maneka Gandhi, Puttaswamy etc). MRE, by stripping married women of autonomy over their bodies, violates this essential right to live with dignity. Further, Article 23’s prohibition against forced labour jurisprudentially extends to situations where coercion is social, economic, or legal. When women are legally compelled to engage in non-consensual sexual acts, the law becomes complicit in enabling a form of forced labour within the home, undermining constitutional protections against servitude.
The proportionality test: why MRE fails judicial scrutiny India’s judicial system frequently applies the proportionality test to assess restrictions on fundamental rights, requiring that such measures serve a legitimate aim and are necessary and proportionate to achieving that aim. MRE, purportedly intended to preserve the sanctity of marriage, cannot be justified by this rationale. As seen in Shayara Bano, preserving patriarchal norms cannot override the fundamental rights to equality and autonomy. Moreover, less restrictive measures – such as promoting mutual respect within marriage – could achieve the same objectives without infringing on a woman’s autonomy.
MRE and the “normative deficit” in Indian law Rochana Bajpai’s argument on group-differentiated rights is a viable theoretical lens to examine MRE. Bajpai’s theory sheds light on why certain profound constitutional guarantees remain unrealised despite their formal recognition. MRE epitomises what Bajpai calls a “normative deficit”- a lack of established and reasoned justifications to substantiate rights – in three crucial ways. First, akin to under-theorised protections of cultural and religious minority rights that Bajpai analysed, women’s sexual autonomy within marriage is bereft of a well-founded normative justification in Indian jurisprudence. Second, this lacuna of a robust normative justification has allowed patriarchal and misogynist assumptions to fill the void thereby perpetuating the fiction of what can be termed “perpetual consent”. Third and most critically, the failure to develop any normative justification has transversed constitutional silence to active institutional oppression.
This vacuum of normativity has several profound implications. Rather than just failing to protect married women’s rights, the legal system and the State actively participate in their subordination. MRE exemplifies not merely an oversight but also a systemic devaluation of constitutional principles- where the institution of matrimony, paradoxically, strips women of fundamental protections that they would otherwise possess. This state-endorsed hierarchy of rights shows how normative deficits can calcify into a stark constitutional deficit by allowing socially entrenched patriarchal norms to masquerade as statutory and legal principles.
The continued existence of MRE reveals how the lack of strong normative frameworks does not merely leave a void but creates room for unconstitutional practices to acquire legitimacy. Just like in the case of cultural and religious minorities, it so happens that these unconstitutional practices are often at the cost of minority protections.
The path forward MRE stands as the epitome of constitutional abdication and normative failure in Indian law. Through its unconstitutional and inhumane preservation of patriarchal power within marriage, it not only contravenes fundamental rights but also legitimises gender inequality and violence in one of the most intimate spheres of human life. The constitutional challenge in Hrikesh Sahoo v. State of Karnataka gives the Supreme Court a historic opportunity to remedy this long-standing injustice. Such a step would go a long way in fulfilling the Constitutional promise of equal dignity and autonomy for all.
All articles posted on this blog give the views of the author(s), and not the position of the Department of Sociology, LSE Human Rights, nor of the London School of Economics and Political Science.
New Delhi, January 9, 2025—Indian authorities must ensure justice for murdered Indian journalist Mukesh Chandrakar, whose body was found in a septic tank on January 3, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Thursday.
Mukesh Chandrakar, a freelance reporter, was last seen in the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh on January 1. His brother reported him missing the following day. On January 3, the journalist’s mutilated body was discovered on a property owned by his cousin, contractor Suresh Chandrakar.
The contractor and three other suspects were arrested on January 4 and 5 and remanded in custody for 14 days on January 6.
In late December, the news channel NDTV had aired Mukesh Chandrakar’s investigation into alleged corruption in a 1.2 billion rupee (US$12 million) road project, which implicated Suresh Chandrakar and prompted a state government inquiry.
“The murder of Mukesh Chandrakar, whose reporting exposed alleged corruption in public infrastructure projects, is a tragic reminder of the dangers faced by Indian journalists in small towns and rural areas,” said CPJ Program Director Carlos Martinez de la Serna. “Protecting vulnerable journalists is vital for preserving press freedom and democracy.”
Mayank Gurjar, head of a police Special Investigation Team set up by the state government to investigate the murder, told CPJ that the four suspects were charged with murder, conspiracy, destruction of evidence, and other offenses under India’s criminal code.
“At this stage we cannot pinpoint a single motive. While the victim’s journalistic work is a possible consideration, we cannot confirm this as the definitive reason until our investigation is complete,” said Gurjar.
China has created two new counties in southwestern Xinjiang in disputed territory also claimed by India, a move analysts say is aimed at strengthening Beijing’s control over the area — and will likely exacerbate tension with India.
The two new counties — Hekang and He’an — are in Aksai Chin, a rugged, high-altitude desert area that China took from India in 1962 during the Sino-Indian War. It is the easternmost part of the larger Kashmir region claimed by India as part of its Nubra district in Ladakh.
“The two new counties show that China is consolidating its control over Aksai Chin,” said Anders Corr, principal of the New York-based political risk firm Corr Analytics.
“The move will further inflame tensions with India, which might seek to retake the Aksai Chin if there is a war with China over Taiwan, for example,” he said.
India objected by lodging an official protest with Beijing, according to Indian media reports.
The decision to create the two new counties was approved by the Chinese Communist Party’s Central Committee and the State Council, according to a Dec. 27 announcement on the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region government’s website.
The He’an county government will be located in Yulghun township, or Hongliu in Chinese, of Hotan county, while the Hekang county government will be located in Shaydulla township of Guma county, the announcement said.
Renaming locations
In other spots along its border with India, China has renamed locations to reflect its desire for territorial expansion and to normalize its occupation of disputed areas.
Speaking to reporters on Jan. 3, Randhir Jaiswal, spokesman for India’s Ministry of External Affairs, said India never accepted China’s “illegal occupation of Indian territory in this area,” The Hindu reported.
“The creation of new counties will neither have a bearing on India’s long-standing and consistent position regarding our sovereignty over the area nor lend legitimacy to China’s illegal and forcible occupation of the same,” he was quoted as saying.
Jaiswal also said India conveyed its concerns to Beijing about the planned construction of a mega hydropower project — which would be the world’s largest such dam — on the Yarlung Tsangpo River, the Tibetan name of Brahmaputra River, which flows through Arunachal Pradesh and Assam.
‘Break apart India’
China had expressed its willingness to cooperate with India on border issues, and on Dec. 18, Indian National Security Advisor Ajit Doval met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Beijing for the 23rd round of boundary negotiations.
Chinese President Xi Jinping (right) meets with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the BRICS summit in Kazan, Russia, Oct. 23, 2024.(Reuters)
But just 10 days later, China announced the creation of the two counties — which U.S. political analyst Gordon G. Chang said could be a negotiating ploy.
“After all, the Chinese are talking to the Indians about territorial matters,” he said. “But we have to step back and understand that China is seeking to break apart India. It has for decades. This establishment of counties is just another tactic in a very long series of tactics of China to break apart India.”
Erkin Ekrem, a professor at Hacettepe University in Ankara, Turkey, said the move is part of Beijing’s pressure tactics against India.
“The aim is to pressure India with a viewpoint or policy that claims this region has historically been Chinese territory in order to resolve the border dispute, and they have been trying to gain control of whatever border they desire,” he said.
Ekrem predicted that China would try to relocate Uyghurs living in the Aksai Chin area and bring in Han Chinese settlers.
He said this is what occurred nine years ago when Chinese authorities established the city of Qurumqash, or Kunyu in Chinese, in Xinjiang, when they brought in many Han Chinese with the Bingtuan, a state-run economic and paramilitary organization that develops land and secures borders.
Leveraging infrastructure
Major infrastructure projects in Xinjiang and neighboring Tibet are positioning China to have the upper hand in territorial disputes and other disagreements that could escalate, Ekrem said.
The creation of a massive reservoir in Tibet, for instance, not only secures China’s water resources but also gives the Chinese leverage over India and other bordering countries, he said.
Recent upgrades to Hotan’s dual-use airport mean that the air field can be used by the military in the event of a conflict with India, and extensive railway networks built by the Chinese in Tibet can facilitate rapid troop deployment, he said.
“Through these infrastructure developments in both East Turkestan and Tibet, China has created a strategic advantage from military and defense perspectives,” Ekrem said, using Uyghurs’ preferred name for Xinjiang.
“These regions can serve as a rear base in any potential conflict with India, allowing China to potentially gain control of the region,” he said. “This strategic positioning explains the significance of these new construction projects and establishment of the counties.”
Translated by RFA Uyghur. Edited by Roseanne Gerin and Malcolm Foster.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Uyghar for RFA Uyghur.
The Dalai Lama on Sunday received a stirring welcome in South India, where more than 10,000 Tibetans lined the streets to greet the Tibetan Buddhist spiritual leader as he arrived for an extended stay at the Tashi Lhunpo Monastery in Bylakuppe.
It was his first visit to the Bylakuppe Tibetan Settlement in the Indian state of Karnataka — the largest Tibetan settlement in the world outside Tibet — in over seven years. Over 20,000 Tibetans live in the community, which was established on land leased by the state government for Tibetans who resettled in India after 1959.
The Dalai Lama was warmly welcomed in South India as 10,000 Tibetans cheered his arrival at Bylakuppe, his first visit in 7 years.
That was the year that China quelled the Tibetan national uprising movement and annexed Tibet, prompting the 14th Dalai Lama to flee to India alongside thousands of Tibetans.
The trip also marked the Dalai Lama’s first domestic travel within India after his return to his residence in Dharamsala in the northern part of the county in late August 2024, following a two-month stay in the United States, where he underwent a successful knee replacement surgery in New York.
The visit comes as the Dalai Lama, 89, tries to allay concerns over his general health amid questions about his successor. The Chinese government insists it will select the 15th Dalai Lama, though Tibetan Buddhists believe in the reincarnation of their spiritual leaders.
The Dalai Lama on Sunday received a stirring welcome in South India as more than 10,000 Tibetans, young and old, lined the streets to greet the Tibetan spiritual leader as he arrived for an extended stay in the Tashi Lhunpo Monastery in Bylakuppe – his first visit to the South Indian settlement in over seven years.(Multimedia video)
The Dalai Lama, who has said he expects to live to be over 100 years old to fulfill the wishes of the Tibetan people, has stated that his incarnation could be found in India.
“Today, I have come to Tashi Lhunpo Monastery which was founded by Gyalwa Gendun Drub, the First Dalai Lama,” he said, at a reception ceremony in the monastery. “As his successor, I feel happy and honored to be here today.”
The Tashi Lhunpo Monastery, known as the seat of the Panchen Lama, was founded in 1447 in Shigatse, Tibet, by the first Dalai Lama, Gyalwa Gendun Drub. After China’s occupation of Tibet, the monastery was re-established in Bylakuppe, South India, in 1972 by senior monks under the guidance of the Dalai Lama.
“In Tibet, the Tashi Lhunpo Monastery was renowned for the quality of the monks’ studies of Buddhist philosophy and logic,” he said. “It is one of Tibet’s most important monasteries,” the Dalai Lama said.
The exact duration of the Dalai Lama’s “extended stay” in South India has not been disclosed.
Local Tibetan officials told RFA that the primary purpose of his visit is to rest and enjoy the warmer climate of South India in the winter, and that, as such, no major teachings have, as yet, been planned.
However, from Wednesday onwards, public blessings for the Tibetan people are expected to be held three times a week — every from Monday, Wednesday and Friday — with the initial rounds to focus on Tibetans aged 80 and above, according to the Dalai Lama’s office.
Rousing welcome
The Dalai Lama left his residence in Dharamsala on Jan. 3 for an overnight stay in the Indian capital New Delhi, from where he made a journey to Bangalore the following day. There, hundreds of Tibetan professionals, students and businessmen dressed in their traditional best greeted him with incense, flowers and silk scarves.
On Jan. 5, the Dalai Lama flew by helicopter from Bangalore to the Bylakuppe settlement. All along the more than 5-kilometer (3-mile) stretch of road leading to the Tashi Lhunpo Monastery, thousands of Tibetans carrying traditional silk scarves and incense welcomed him amid the sounds of cymbals, drums and horns, as monks and nuns chanted.
“All of us residents of the Tibetan settlements in South India are very fortunate that His Holiness is here,” said Namgyal, who hails from the Doeguling Tibetan Settlement in Mundgod, about 400 kilometers (250 miles) north of Bylakuppe.
“Even though I’m old, I’ve made the journey to be here to satisfy my heart’s desire to see His Holiness,” he said.
Thousands of Tibetans line a street in the Bylakuppe Tibetan Settlement in the Indian state of Karnataka to greet the Dalai Lama, Dec. 5, 2025.(Office of His Holiness the Dalai Lama)
Tsewang Dolma, an elderly woman from the Tibetan settlement in Hunsur, over 40 kilometers (25 miles) east of Bylakuppe, said she was elated about the visit.
“I feel very emotional and am almost tearing up,” she told Radio Free Asia, while holding a bouquet of flowers to welcome the Dalai Lama. “All I pray for is that he lives a long, long life.”
Role of Buddhist monasteries
The Dalai Lama’s last visit to Bylakuppe was in December 2017, during which he gave Buddhist teachings at Sera Jey and Sera Mey monasteries.
In his address at Tashi Lhunpo Monastery, where the heads of all the different Tibetan monastic institutions were gathered, the Dalai Lama emphasized the critical importance of monasteries in serving as “centers of learning” for Buddhist study and practice.
“As I have always advised, the principal purpose of a monastery is to serve as a center of learning where monks and nuns have the opportunity to study and put into practice the Buddha’s teachings,” he said.
“Members of all the monastic institutions should strive to uphold the Buddha’s teachings, particularly in this degenerate age,” the Dalai Lama said, while noting the growing interest in Buddhism in China and other regions.
“Today, many people around the world who are not Buddhists are taking an interest in the Buddha’s teachings,” he added. “These include scientists who value the Buddhist tradition’s emphasis and use of reason and logic.”
Translated by Tenzin Norzom and Tashi Wangchuk. Edited by Tenzin Pema for RFA Tibetan, and by Roseanne Gerin and Malcolm Foster.
The story was updated to say that over 20,000 Tibetans live in the Bylakuppe Tibetan Settlement.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Pema Ngodup, Dickey Kundol and Tenzin Dhonyoe for RFA Tibetan.
Whenever farmer Namdev Kamble visits a doctor, he remembers the hundreds of trees that once surrounded him. “We live in the same area today, but everything around us has changed completely,” he said in a voice heavy with nostalgia and loss. On his way to his farmland in Shirdhon village of India’s Maharashtra state, Kamble would see the giant tamarind, babul, neem, and several other types of…
Outside the Khirki branch of Delhi’s Community Library Project, a signboard details the day’s programs, including scheduled story times and art activities. Children bounce and buzz as they wait in line to check out their books. Patrons take advantage of clean public bathrooms, drinking water (in short supply in many of Delhi’s unplanned communities) and internet-connected laptops. This library feels more like my home Windsor Terrace branch of the Brooklyn Public Library than it does the Delhi Public Library a few kilometers away. The biggest difference?
Thich Minh Tue, 44, is on a 2,700-kilometer (1,650-mile) barefoot pilgrimage across Thailand and Myanmar to Buddhist sites in India — if authorities will let him.
He left Vietnam in late November, walked across Laos and entered Thailand on Dec. 31. Next he’s bound for Bangkok.
His roadside journey -– carrying just a rice cooker and a few other personal items while accompanied by a handful of supporters -– is similar to his walk through Vietnam last year, which brought him fame as social media influencers documented his travels.
Who is Thich Minh Tue and why does he matter?
Le Anh Tu, who took the monk name Thich Minh Tue (“Thich” means “Venerable”), became a household name in Vietnam last May when he was on a barefoot walk across that country.
Followers on and off social media were drawn to his humble attitude and ascetic practices. Sporting a shaved head and wearing a patched robe, Thich Minh Tue usually goes barefoot, which is common among monks.
Thich Minh Tue, the Vietnamese “barefoot monk” who became an internet sensation, is on a pilgrimage to India.
And actually, Thich Minh Tue isn’t officially a monk because he’s not recognized by the state-sanctioned Vietnam Buddhist Sangha, or community.
That doesn’t seem to matter to him or to his fans. He says he’s simply trying to live out the teachings of Buddha.
But the attention he was getting appeared to worry the authorities. In early June, law enforcement officials raided his camp in the middle of the night, detaining him and several of his followers. That prompted an international call for his release.
How does Thich Minh Tue practice his religion?
Thich Minh Tue adheres to a form of Buddhism that requires followers to own only three sets of clothes, to subsist by collecting alms house to house and to live a low-impact life in outdoor places like forests, mountains or even in graveyards.
He began his religious journey six years ago and has since made several pilgrimages on foot between Vietnam’s southeastern city of Nha Trang and the northern border with China. It was only after his trip in May was covered on social media that he drew widespread attention.
Supporters say his modest ways stand in contrast to senior monks in Vietnam who encourage followers to give offerings while living in large pagodas and flaunting expensive watches and luxury cars.
Vietnamese monk Thich Minh Tue is seated in Ubon Ratchathani Province, Thailand, Jan. 1, 2025, one day after he arrived in Thailand from Laos.(RFA)
How freely can people practice religion in Vietnam?
Freedom of religion is technically enshrined in Vietnam’s constitution but Thich Minh Tue does not belong to a Buddhist sect that is recognized by the state. Without recognition, religious groups are not allowed to organize in Vietnam –- a policy some say demonstrates how protections for religion exist in name only.
In its 2024 annual report, the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, or USCIRF, said Vietnamese authorities “continue to monitor all religious activity closely, often harassing, detaining, or otherwise preventing unregistered faith communities from exercising their fundamental right to religious freedom.”
USCIRF recommended that the U.S. Department of State designate Vietnam a Country of Particular Concern because its government engages in or tolerates “particularly severe” violations of religious freedom.
Vietnamese monk Thich Minh Tue walks in Chong Mek, Ubon Ratchathani Province, Thailand, Dec. 31, 2024, as he arrives in Thailand from Laos.(RFA)
What prompted Thich Minh Tue to leave Vietnam?
Thich Minh Tue disappeared from public view for nearly a month after authorities raided his camp in June.
He resurfaced in July, and then in November, several letters purportedly written in his own hand began to circulate on social media.
In one letter, Thich Minh Tue said he would no longer adhere to a vow of poverty as he continued to study the Buddhist virtues. A newspaper report said he had announced he would no longer be begging for alms to prevent disruption to “security, order, and social and political safety.”
Supporters were quick to question whether he had been forced to write the letter under duress, or whether someone else had wrote it for him.
At about the same time, the Government Committee for Religious Affairs announced on its website that Thich Minh Tue had “voluntarily retired.”
Why is he walking to India?
But then in November, Thich Minh Tue announced that he wanted to go on a pilgrimage to visit religious sites in India, where Buddhism originated.
The question remains whether he will be allowed to return to Vietnam after the pilgrimage, a Thai observer told BenarNews.
The observer, who requested anonymity for security reasons, noted that Thich Minh Tue is being accompanied by Doan Van Bau, a former security official in the Vietnamese government who specialized in criminology and psychological operations.
“It is unclear whether he was assigned to escort the monk out of the spotlight in Vietnam and lessen his influence there,” he said.
Vietnamese monk Thich Minh Tue, center, walks in Chong Mek, Ubon Ratchathani Province, Thailand, Dec. 31, 2024, as he arrives in Thailand from Laos.(RFA)
A Thai police officer said Thich Minh Tue came into the country legally.
“He didn’t indicate plans to travel to Myanmar, only stating he was coming for a pilgrimage, and we haven’t found any violations,” said Police Lt. Col. Kittipong Thanomsin of the border town of Chong Mek.
“There are no concerns or need for special coordination, as we conduct regular checks as usual,” he told BenarNews, an RFA-affiliated online news outlet. “There has been no communication from Vietnam.”
Edited by Matt Reed and Malcolm Foster. BenarNews’ Nontarat Phaicharoen and Ruj Chuenban in Bangkok contributed to this report.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by RFA Vietnamese.
Outside the Khirki branch of Delhi’s Community Library Project, a signboard details the day’s programs, including scheduled story times and art activities. Children bounce and buzz as they wait in line to check out their books. Patrons take advantage of clean public bathrooms, drinking water (in short supply in many of Delhi’s unplanned communities) and internet-connected laptops.
Losing shelter can be one of the most traumatic experiences of a person’s life. There’s no single cause behind this global crisis, but all people pushed into homelessness face the same question: Where do I go now? In India, a coalition of grassroots organizations from across the country, including four AJWS grantees, are answering this …
Amid globally visible Western hypocrisy on Palestine and Ukraine, a new book provides us with a clear outline of how the mainstream corporate media plays an important role in shaping opinions in the service of US imperialism. In doing so, the book updates and validates the seminal work of Noam Chomsky and Edward Herman in Manufacturing Consent. The Canary caught up with author Devan Hawkins to discuss his new book Worthy and Unworthy.
And in our first article on the book, we look at how uneven coverage of protests in China and India pushed him to explore even more cases of blatant media bias.
Worthy and Unworthy: behind the research
Hawkins said his experiences growing up made him “skeptical of the media”. In particular, the US-led invasion and occupation of Iraq in 2003 taught him about “how the media can manipulate people’s opinions, intentionally or not”. And more recently, he decided to “delve more deeply into these topics”, especially as US foreign policy has “reoriented itself” to the perception of China as “the new official enemy”.
The spark for the book was an article he was preparing on the differing coverage between the Hong Kong and Kashmir protests of 2019. As these “almost lined up with each other perfectly”, he began to analyse them systematically.
By “applying Noam Chomsky and Edward Herman’s idea around worthy and unworthy victims”, he would evaluate whether Hong Kong got more attention because the ‘bad guy’ of the story was New Cold War target China, while the bad guy in Kashmir was India – a “Major Defense Partner” of the US.
Hawkins focused on looking at coverage from the New York Times, as a paper of record. In particular, he searched for all relevant articles there, counted them, and then determined the “quality of the coverage”.
The expectation was that “not only would the coverage be greater in the case of the events that are happening in your official state enemies of the country, but also that it would be more negative”.
By applying Chomsky and Herman’s approach, Hawkins essentially validated it, showing that it’s still relevant today. In fact, he said:
If anything, it’s even more relevant now because of the cutbacks that are happening for a lot of outlets, right? In the past, smaller media outlets might have had foreign coverage, where now it’s really the New York Times and those big papers. So that’s the only source for a lot of these stories that are happening in these other countries.
How the media is still ‘Manufacturing Consent’ for conflict
Chomsky and Herman’s Manufacturing Consent looked at how capitalist mainstream media organisations work in the interests of powerful elites. And they argued that these media outlets split victims of violence or injustice into two groups – ‘worthy’ or ‘unworthy’.
If a victim is fighting a country that powerful interests oppose, their cause is worthy (think Ukraine and Russia). But if a victim is fighting a country that’s an ally of powerful interests, their cause is unworthy (think Palestine and Israel).
The idea is that mainstream media coverage will show significant sympathy for ‘worthy’ victims, treating them as worthy of support, but will downplay or even justify the suffering of ‘unworthy’ victims. Even if their situations are essentially the same, the theory says, the coverage will be different.
The double standards of the US empire and its allies have long been clear. But with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Israel’s genocide in Gaza overlapping in the last year, the hypocrisyisasnakedlyobvious as perhaps ever before. And the mainstream media has loyally followed suit, to differing extents.
Hawkins started out with a scientific, analytical comparison of the Hong Kong and Kashmir protests. But he ended up compiling a number of important comparisons from different parts of the world. And these help to prove that the mainstream media’s distinction between worthy and unworthy causes is still going strong.
In fact, if anything, Chomsky and Herman’s theory is as poignantly relevant today as it ever has been.
Case Study One: a ’worthy’ protest against China and an ‘unworthy’ protest against India
Talking about legitimate concerns for citizens in Hong Kong, now part of China under the “one country, two systems” principle, Hawkins takes us back to the protests of 2019 over the Extradition Bill. These events were big news in the West, but he boils it down to the fact that:
sometimes criminals would commit crimes, especially financial crimes in mainland China, and then flee to Hong Kong, and then there’d be a situation where it would be impossible for them to be extradited for it.
And while Western media covered the protests, they rarely highlighted that there was “a certain element of the population that was in favor of the Extradition Bill”.
the article of the Constitution was revoked, and that was an article of the Constitution that had existed… for well over half a century that gave the special status to Kashmir
Comparing this to the events in Hong Kong:
Basically, democratic elections completely ended in Kashmir during that time, and then there was a much more violent response. There were more deaths that occurred in terms of the protests and the state response to it. There were actually no deaths that were documented in the case of the Hong Kong protests where there were… maybe close to a dozen that occurred in Kashmir during those time periods.
So both in terms of the the nature of what was done, which I would say would be more drastic in the case of Kashmir than in Hong Kong… and then also the state response, it seemed more drastic, and therefore you would think it would get at the very least as much coverage as the Hong Kong protests.
But as I show in the book that was very much not the case… And then also in terms of the nature of the coverage overall, I would say that the coverage was critical in the case of the Kashmir revocation, but not to the same extent… and not to the same volume as was the case with Hong Kong.
Why was the coverage different?
Hawkins insists that he doesn’t really go into the reasons for the the difference in coverage. However, he does point out that:
It’s easier to report on the stories when they’re negative about China, because we’re… primed to see China as the enemy, and not have those same necessary feelings about India.
He also says protesters in Hong Kong seemed “more media savvy”:
They were doing a good job of doing things that would generally get the attention of the US media.
On this point, he mentions that the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), which journalist and author Matt Kennard has called “an overt CIA”, had previously “supported what are called ‘democratic movements’ in Hong Kong”. He believes it would be great to have more research about how such training “can be helpful for teaching protesters how to appeal to Western audiences”.
The Canary will be releasing more articles on the comparisons Hawkins made in his book in the coming days.
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India’s foodservice sector is a major opportunity for plant-based brands, but better education and menu integration are needed to increase consumer demand for meat analogues.
Low awareness and common misconceptions contribute to a lack of demand for plant-based meat in India, leaving a big foodservice opportunity gap for vegan brands.
That’s the conclusion of a new report by the Good Food Institute (GFI) India, which addresses the challenges hindering the potential of meat alternatives in India’s restaurant industry, and what companies need to do to overcome them.
Titled ‘The Next Course: Reimagining Smart Protein’, the report was unveiled at an event featuring representatives from McDonald’s, the National Restaurant Association of India, and hotel group InterContinental, as well as plant-based brands like Blue Tribe, GoodDot, Plantway, and others.
Following in-depth interviews with chefs, restaurant owners, marketers and industry leaders, GFI India found that plant-based meats need to be integrated into local cuisines to help position them as tasty and indulgent offerings on foodservice menus, and recommended strategies such as chef collaboration and consumer education initiatives.
“The food service industry has always played a key role in introducing newer cuisines and ingredients to Indian households and holds immense potential to drive the adoption of plant-based proteins among consumers as well,” said Sneha Singh, managing director of GFI India.
“India’s rich culinary heritage and dynamic dining out market make it uniquely positioned to lead a transformative shift in the way we eat and pave the way for a more sustainable and inclusive food ecosystem,” she added.
Cloud kitchens, cuisines and labelling in focus
Courtesy: GFI India
By 2028, India’s foodservice industry is set to trail only the US and China, a growth fuelled by the rise of urbanisation, the demand for convenience, and lifestyle changes.
The GFI India report suggests that Mumbai is the vegan capital of India, home to 37% of restaurants serving plant-based meat across eight metropolises. Bangalore (20%) and New Delhi (19%) round up the top three.
Meanwhile, casual dining eateries account for 35% of all restaurants serving meat analogues, followed by cafés and cloud kitchens (21%) – the latter particularly offers enormous potential thanks to the rise in food delivery.
Cloud kitchens also serve more plant-based meat dishes on average (5.3) than casual dining establishments (4.9) and cafés (4.4), and represent the cheapest price for dishes with meat alternatives (₹357/$4.21 on average). In contrast, these dishes have a price tag of ₹665 ($7.85) in fine dining establishments.
Courtesy: GFI India
Notably, the most popular ways to incorporate these proteins into dishes skew Western and snacky. Burgers and wraps alone make up 43% of these items, with pizzas and hot dogs accounting for another 26%. “Foodservice establishments can expand their appeal by integrating plant-based meat into local and regional Indian cuisines and dishes, thereby tapping into a broader consumer base,” the report suggests.
Similarly, labelling is a critical opportunity too. Half of these dishes are labelled as ‘vegan’, while under a quarter (23%) feature the term ‘plant-based’, despite research proving that consumers prefer the latter.
“Increasingly, positioning dishes as ‘high-protein’ and ‘plant-based protein’ is resonating with consumers,” the report states. “Taking the route of deprivation with terms like ‘meatless’ doesn’t appeal to consumers, particularly meat-eaters who are seeking taste and indulgence when dining out.”
What’s holding restaurants back?
Courtesy: GoodDo
The research identified two main barriers to the adoption of plant-based meat in the Indian foodservice landscape. The first is a “lack of consumer demand”: few locals are asking about or requesting these options when dining out, part of a larger consumer awareness issue in the country.
Even among those aware of these foods, there are questions about their relevance in their lives. Previous research by GFI India and Kantar has found that Indians over 45 feel alternative proteins are not relevant to them, adding to population-wide concerns about perceived ‘unnaturalness’, lack of clarity on health benefits, and taste and price.
Meat-eaters are already choosing conventional meat dishes, while both vegetarians and vegans have sufficient options available on restaurant menus, and so many foodservice establishments don’t see an incentive in educating diners and adding new meat alternatives to their plates.
Pranav Rungta, vice-president of the National Restaurant Association of India, noted: “The real barrier is not the lack of awareness but the need for a mindset change. With the foodservice industry growing and becoming more organised, educated restaurateurs who understand the impact of health, nutrition, and alternative proteins are also growing.”
The second hurdle is within the kitchens. While most chefs are familiar with the category, not everyone is well-briefed on the production process of meat alternatives, or their associated health benefits. Restaurants prioritising local and seasonal ingredients consider plant-based meats processed and not in line with their ethos or their target consumers.
“Busting myths around the processed nature of plant-based meat, along with creating awareness about the ingredients, processes, and health benefits, can help dispel some of the misconceptions,” the report reads. It further points to tie-ups with culinary schools and chef forums as a means to educate and improve awareness.
How plant-based meat brands can appeal to restaurants
Courtesy: Rollin’ Plantz
There are a host of ways for Indian vegan meat manufacturers to land on restaurant menus. Prioritising taste as the main selling point and co-creating recipes with chefs should help, but so too will the understanding that each restaurant is different – customising products, recipes, pricing, and positioning to suit businesses’ needs is crucial.
For example, products that can be used as ingredients in their recipes are preferred over ready-to-cook formats. Chunks and minced meat tend to be the favoured products, as they can be used nearly as efficiently as their animal-derived counterparts in creating multiple menu items.
Leveraging the price premium at fine dining and specialty restaurants over QSRs could also be a winning strategy. That said, vegetarian dishes are usually always cheaper than meat-based options in India, so pricing plant-based meat on par with other vegetarian dishes at foodservice establishments is more prudent, both from a customer and restaurant standpoint.
Foodservice operators that have used plant-based meat have also taken issue with consistency in product sourcing, with some brands stopping supply without much notice, which needs to be addressed. Additionally, marketing these dishes together with the restaurant through on-table and in-store displays helps spread the word further.
“Plant-based brands have to look at themselves not as product suppliers but as solutions providers,” said Romil Ratra, CEO of Graviss Hospitality and co-founder of vegan company Plantaway. “Brands and food service businesses both have their own unique visions, and decisions on these partnerships often come down to price.”
Mumbai-based startup Biokraft Foods hosted India’s first formal tasting of cultivated meat last week, presenting a hybrid chicken it hopes to launch next year.
Amid a welcoming biotech environment and increasing regulatory clarity, Indian startup Biokraft Foods signalled the country’s appetite for novel foods at a showcase for its cultivated chicken.
Over 30 sector leaders, sustainability advocates, and members of industry groups attended what was India’s first public tasting for cultivated meat, marking a milestone development for the future of food in the world’s most populous country.
The event was a precursor for Biokraft Foods’s market launch, which it indicates could come as soon as next year. The company is “optimistic” about the timeline since it’s already working closely with the Food Safety Standards Authority of India (FSSAI).
“Currently, cultivated meat will go through the novel and non-specified product route, as recently clarified by FSSAI officials. We are preparing our regulatory dossier to par with the available data from regulatory approved companies,” Biokraft Foods founder and CEO Kamalnayan Tibrewal tells Green Queen.
“We understand the ball has to be rolled by being the first company in India to start the work by regulatory officials in this space,” he adds. “Also, officials have clarified if the company and product meet all the standards, the approval process won’t take more than six to eight months.”
Combining chicken cells with plants and algae
Courtesy: Biokraft Foods
Tibrewal is an alum of the Institute of Chemical Technology (ICT) in Mumbai, as well as the Good Food Institute’s (GFI) Smart Protein Project in the city. He established Biokraft Foods in 2023, supported by leading incubator programmes from ICT Mumbai, SP-TBI, and iCreate.
At the tasting, members of GFI India, Peta India, the Chamber for Advancement of Small & Medium Businesses (CASMB), Brinc, the Youth Organization in Defense of Animals India, and India Animal Fund (among others) tried Biokraft Foods’s cultivated chicken as part of slider burgers and chilli chicken, an Indo-Chinese classic.
The startup employs an advanced 3D bioprinting technology to make its cultivated chicken, marrying it with precision engineering and cellular biology to replicate the structure, taste, texture and nutritional profile of conventional chicken.
“We have developed our in-house proprietary bioink that contains all the ingredients required to achieve chicken meat’s essential sensory and physical properties. We use 3D bioprinting to fabricate the final chicken breast structures,” explains Tibrewal.
Asked about the product’s composition, he adds: “We are primarily working on chicken breasts made from certain plant-based and algal-based biopolymers in addition to chicken cells.”
Biokraft Foods will soon validate more SKUs, according to Tibrewal. “We are beyond thrilled to host this landmark event and introduce cultivated chicken meat to India. This is not just a milestone for Biokraft Foods, but a leap forward for sustainable food innovation in the country,” he says. “The overwhelmingly positive feedback we received fuels our commitment to redefine how meat is produced.”
The firm is to organise more tasting events to reach a broader audience and expand external validation, allowing both consumers and industry professionals to experience cultivated meat and provide valuable feedback to refine the product.
Priced the same as premium chicken
Courtesy: Biokraft Foods
India may be known as a meat-free haven, being home to the world’s largest vegetarian population, but even so, at least 60% of its citizens eat meat. And chicken is by far the most popular among those people.
But as a nation whose food habits are increasingly being dictated by health, its residents seem open to novel foods. Nutrition is already driving greater consumption of plant proteins, but they’re also receptive to cultivated meat, as a survey showed in March. It found that over 60% of Indians are willing to buy cultivated meat, with 59% identifying it as an alternative to conventional meat that promotes nutritional security.
One key barrier, as is the case in other countries too, will be the cost of cultivated meat. This has been a major bottleneck for startups around the world, and is critical to wider adoption of these proteins.
“Our product would be competitively priced to meet the demands of the Horeca [hotels, restaurants, and catering] sector,” Tibrewal reveals. “For a general Indian consumer market, chicken meat is available for around ₹150-250 ($1.75-2.95) per kg, and for a B2B market, it is priced between ₹300-600 ($3.50-7) per kg, given the premium involved.
“So, our target pricing is between ₹300-350 ($3.50-4.10) per kg, which will be good to go for the B2B market,” he says. This could be viable, considering that 46% of respondents to the aforementioned survey are willing to pay a 10-30% premium on cultivated meat.
The startup is also planning to set up an independent R&D and production facility by the end of 2025, which will further help streamline its costs.
Biokraft Foods to close pre-seed funding round soon
Courtesy: Biokraft Foods
Progress for India’s cultivated meat sector has sped up this year. The FSSAI has reportedly been looking to develop a regulatory framework for cultivated meat and seafood products, confirming that it would work with the government’s Department of Biotechnology and Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council on the same at a regulatory conclave in April.
India’s health minister, JP Nadda, stressed the importance of setting up the framework at a food safety summit in September. And last month, the government was urged to set clear regulatory guidelines for these alternative proteins.
Government bodies have invested in this space, too, with multiple research grants for cultivated meat from the Ministry of Science and Technology. Meanwhile, ICAR-Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute and New Delhi-based startup Neat Meatt are co-developing cultivated seafood, and Biokraft Foods itself is working with the ICAR-Directorate of Coldwater Fisheries Research on a similar project.
The opportunity for cultivated seafood has also attracted Singaporean pioneer Umami Bioworks, which has established R&D and commercialisation partnerships with two research hubs in India. One of them, the Centre for Smart Protein and Sustainable Material Innovation, was opened in May in Bengaluru, the same week the Alternative Proteins Innovation Center was launched in the city,
Biokfraft Foods, which has been backed by several government grants, is now in the middle of a pre-seed funding round, which is expected to close “very soon”, says Tibrewal.
Speaking after the tasting, CASMB president Nilesh Lele – a strategic advisor to the company – said: “Biokraft Foods is at the forefront of cultivated meat innovation, and this event underscores their potential to revolutionize the industry. I’m confident that Biokraft will not only lead in this space but also put India on the global map for sustainable food technology. This is just the beginning.”
Official attitudes are hardening towards the minority group amid an anti-Muslim crackdown, say activists
For Rohingya refugee Hussain Ahmed, the hope that his children might receive a formal education to secure a better adulthood than his own was what “kept him going”. After fleeing to India from Myanmar in 2016, he began working as a construction worker in a country where he is not allowed to seek legal employment. Then he met with a new hurdle.
“For the last few years, I have been running from pillar to post, trying to get a local government-run school to enrol my 10-year-old son and seven-year-old daughter. I cannot afford the fees of privately run schools, so the government ones were my only hope. But all of them turned my children down,” says Ahmed, who lives in the Khajuri Khas area of Delhi with his wife and four children.
Funding for alternative proteins has grown by 85% this year in Asia-Pacific, mirroring a larger sector-wide recovery, a new AgFunder report shows.
Asia-Pacific’s agrifood tech sector is showing “remarkable” signs of recovery after two years of tumult, with VC investments increasing by 38% so far this year.
By the end of October, companies in the sector had raised $4.2B, reversing a 52% decline from 2023. It has also beefed up APAC’s share in the global agrifood tech funding landscape, which now makes up 31% of the total, up from an average of 26% over the last decade.
The figures come from a new report by AgFunder, in collaboration with Indian VC fund Omnivore and AgriFutures Australia, and signal some respite for businesses working to safeguard the future of food and agriculture.
While investment was still lower than 2020 levels in terms of dollar amounts, the number of deals in the first three quarters of 2024 (616) has already surpassed the full-year totals of each of the last three years, indicating that VCs remain interested in the category, but are more cautious in doling out larger amounts to single companies.
India and China’s dominance complemented by Japan’s jump
Courtesy: AgFunder
The Asia-Pacific AgriFoodTech Investment report found that India has leapfrogged China to the top spot, attracting $2B (or 48%) of the region’s funding this year – although $1B went to a single company, the three-year-old e-grocer Zepto, in two financing rounds.
The world’s most populous country’s agrifood tech industry recuperated significantly from the 73% drop in investments it suffered in 2023. Despite Zepto’s dominant rounds, the number of deals (158) is already 46% higher than the whole of 2023. Green energy specialist Sael’s $299M debt funding ensured that the top three deals belonged to India.
China isn’t too far behind, though, with companies securing $1.5B as of October 2024, 18% higher than this time last year. The country still leads the way in terms of deal count (230), dominating early-stage and Series A rounds. Pig breeding company Shiji Biotechnology Co ($232M) and alcohol producer Serata Moyun ($169M) raised the largest amounts.
The two countries were followed by Japan, which climbed three places to become the surprise success story of the year. Agrifood tech startups in the country brought in $280M (a 58% year-on-year rise) via a total of 93 deals, led by Brewed Protein maker Spiber‘s $65M round. There were signs of this last year, when Japan was the only top 10 APAC nation to see a hike in investments (by 95%).
Australia, however, wasn’t immune to the global downturn, registering a 78% decline in funding year-on-year, with deal count also down by 51%. This has halved its share in the overall APAC market to 1.2% – but in a positive trend, the majority of deals have been closed at the sees stage, indicating renewed activity.
Courtesy: AgFunder
Alternative proteins and novel farm tech rebound
Last year, upstream tech startups (which support farmers and primary production) overtook downstream players (which cover technologies closer to the consumers, like delivery and meal kits) in funding for the first time, but the latter bounced back this year, attracting $1.9B in VC investment.
That said, the gulf between the two has been erased, with upstream companies raising a similar amount ($1.8B) – they also still account for half of the total deal count. Those working with midstream technologies, which connect farmers and food producers to retailers, agro-processors and other clients, secured $525M.
Zepto’s funding success made eGrocery the most well-funded category (raising $1.5B), though deal count also nearly tripled. If you discount Zepto, the upstream categories of Bioenergy & Biomaterials ($475M) and Ag Biotechnology ($459M) were highly attractive to investors this year. The latter’s 30% year-on-year increase was driven by Chinese activity.
Courtesy: AgFunder
Categories labelled Innovative Food (which includes alternative proteins like plant-based foods and cultivated meat) and Novel Farming Systems (covering indoor farms, aquaculture, and insect and algae production) have been the hardest hit on the global stage, but in APAC, they’re rebounding.
Nover Farming Systems posted a small increase from last year with $75M raised over 25 deals. Innovative Food, meanwhile, attracted $204M by the end of October, an 85% increase from the same period in 2023, with deal count also growing from 49 to 59. Singaporean oat milk giant Oatside’s $35M round was the largest in this category.
“APAC is seen as a leader in both of these categories, particularly in Singapore where the government has supported them in search of improved national food security,” the report notes.
In bleaker news, leadership in the agrifood tech sector is still dominated by men, with male-only founding teams making up 92% of the total (from the companies where gender data is available). All-female founders only exist in 3% of businesses, and attract just 0.5% of VC investments (the same as last year). Meanwhile, firms with mixed founding teams saw a dip from 9.3% in 2023 to 8.2% this year.
On Aug. 9, the body of a 31-year-old trainee doctor was discovered on the grounds of R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkota, West Bengal. Evidence of sexual assault on the victim’s body was quickly reported, setting off a national firestorm across India. For months, women and medical professionals around the country have protested to demand justice for the victim and workplace safety. The Real News reports from Kolkota, West Bengal.
Production: Belal Awad and Leo Erhardt Videography: Mithun Pramanik and Reek Baruli Video Editor: Leo Erhardt
Transcript
Chants:
From Kolkata to Bengaluru, how many more Khudirams will you kill?
Narrator:
In the regional Indian capital of Kolkata, West Bengal, a brutal case of rape and murder. Unclear details around the killing of a trainee doctor, known to her friends and colleagues as Dr. Abhaya, has ignited a mass protest movement – that has spread across the entire nation.
Chants:
Your voice, our voices are the justice for RG KAR Hospital.
Narrator:
Dr. Dipanwita Sarkar is from Kolkata, and is a member of the West Bengal Junior Doctors’ Front, who are leading protests in the city.
Dr. Dipanwita Sarkar:
Right now we, the civilians of Kolkata, are on streets protesting against a heinous crime that has happened in our city. On 9th of August, 2024, a lady doctor who was on her duty in our check, our medical college and hospital, which is also in Kolkata, got raped and murdered in her workplace during her work hours.
Chants:
Police, what are you afraid of? What’s your relationship with the culprits?
Narrator:
Dr. Abhaya was found dead the following morning and her family was initially told by police that it was a suicide. It later became clear that she was, in fact, violently raped and murdered. Other details of what happened, where, and who was involved, remain murky. Dr. Tauhid Momen is also a member of the West Bengal Junior Doctors’ Front.
Dr. Tauhid Momen:
We as a whole, as a city, medical fraternity are shook by it. Everything possible was done to cover it up and pass it off as something very trivial. Initially, it was also tried to pass off as a suicide. And the parents of the victim were made to wait for a long time before they could see their daughter. After that, there were alleged accusations of money being offered to them. So basically, what we could see is that this murder and this rape was tried to be covered up by the machinery of the state and the officials of the medical college involved.
Dr. Tauhid Momen:
So this is why our protest has shook the nation, and that’s why we are protesting. Because we want justice. We don’t want this issue to be swept under the rug. We want this to be brought up, and we want justice for what happened. And we want the real culprits to be, so that they come out because, till now, so initially one arrest was made, one arrest was made.
Narrator:
That one initial arrest that was made, was of Sanjay Roy, a volunteer who worked with the police, who was caught on CCTV in the area on the night of the murder. Since then, though, questions have been raised by activists who believe that this was a crime not only premeditated but with more than one person involved — and on an institutional level.
Dr. Tauhid Momen:
He was a civic volunteer. He was set to perpetrate this crime and done it. But, apart from that, the principal, the principal of the medical college and hospital was very, very, very deeply involved in this. That’s why now he, along with the officer in charge of the police station where this incident happened, both of them have finally been arrested on, accusations of alleged rape and murder of the beloved sister.
Narrator:
As well as the principal, a number of other arrests of hospital administration staff have now taken place, lending credibility to activists’ claims of an institutional conspiracy.
Dr. Dipanwita Sarkar:
Because the heinous crime that has happened has, like a backstory. We believe that it has a backstory because, it is not possible that a doctor is getting raped and murdered on her workplace, like, just overnight. It’s not possible. This is a planned murder… It was done, like, with more than 3 to 4 people. We are guessing about it.
Dr. Dipanwita Sarkar:
We are saying that they are literally hiding the criminals. And to save them, what they are doing, they’re tampering with the evidence, they are giving false statements to the media, and they are lying about us. That’s why we are just fighting, like, together.
Interviewer:
Who do you think is responsible for this crime?
Dr. Dipanwita Sarkar:
See, we can’t tell one particular name because we don’t believe this is the work of one person.
Chants:
RG Kar Hospital Demands Justice!
The office hub has called, let the Tilottoma receive justice.
Narrator:
Since the murder, women and doctors have been leading protests demanding transparency and justice in the death of their colleague.
Chants:
The people have risen, the administration is afraid.
Narrator:
The mega-city of Kolkata is home to an estimated 15 million people, and the R G Kar hospital was one of the city’s busiest.
Dr. Tauhid Momen:
Kolkata throughout its history has been actively involved and has been at the forefront of movements like this movement for justice, movements which have had national significance, movements which have shaped our country.
Dr. Dipanwita Sarkar:
If you read the history, you will see that Kolkata had the biggest number of freedom fighters while fighting with the British, the East India Company. So yeah, we have a big history of fighting against injustice. And we are still fighting against injustice.
Dr. Tauhid Momen:
It has no comparison in history. The kind of support we’ve had from the masses. So it’s unprecedented. So this is a one-of-a-kind moment.
Narrator:
Unprecedented perhaps, but this isn’t the first time, that a sexual assault has stirred huge controversy in India. Back in 2012, nationwide protests broke out after a 23-year-old student was gang-raped on a moving bus in the capital, Delhi, and though reports of sexual assault have significantly increased in recent years, conviction rates remain very low.
Today, protests have once again spread across the entire nation, with rights activists demanding not only better facilities and protections for medical workers but accountability for rape crimes in a country where, according to the latest figures, an average of one woman is raped every 17 minutes.
Dr. Dipanwita Sarkar:
The protest started with Kolkata, but eventually all our fraternity joined us across India to be with us. For this protest. They are supporting us. We are really getting support all over from all over India because not exactly like this, but similar kinds of things have happened in almost everywhere in every state in India. And we do not want this to repeat. We do not want one more Abhaya or one more victim to happen. Never, ever.
Narrator:
At the time of production, activists from the Junior Doctors’ Front were still protesting nearly 90 days after the murder, whilst simultaneously coordinating partial and full working strikes and a “fast until death” hunger strike which has resulted in at least 6 hospitalizations.
As well as the removal of senior officials of the State Health Department and increased security for workers, they demand an end to the so-called “threat culture,” which they say is a culture of coordinated and systematic intimidation present in medical and state institutions.
Dr. Tauhid Momen:
Third is we want to end the threat culture which has been going on in medical college and hospital throughout the years. We are demanding the resignation of people involved in tampering with evidence and who have obstructed justice.
Dr. Tauhid Momen:
Sexual assault or this rape culture has been prevalent, it’s been increasing in numbers, and so many cases we don’t get to know because it’s happening in the periphery, in small villages or maybe people have been threatened not to come up and talk about it. And they’ve been silent. They’ve been literally threatened and blackmailed not to come up with this.
Dr. Tauhid Momen:
It’s not only about Kolkata or West Bengal, but it’s all over the country. It’s not just a rape and murder anymore. The main problem is justice is being denied.
Dr. Dipanwita Sarkar:
Also, we have to shout for justice and we have to demand justice because they are denying us. They are denying our sister from getting her justice. That’s why we are on the streets right now, and the protests are going on. It has started since 9th of August and it’s still going on, and we are still fighting, and we will not stop until we get justice.
Interim leader Muhammad Yunus confirms plans to put former PM on trial accused of crimes against humanity
Bangladesh will seek the extradition of the former prime minister Sheikh Hasina to face trial on charges including crimes against humanity, the country’s interim leader, Muhammad Yunus, has said in a speech.
Hasina, whose autocratic regime governed Bangladesh for 15 years, was toppled in a student-led revolution in August. Since then she has been living in exile in India after fleeing the country in a helicopter as thousands of protesters overran the presidential palace.
India is poised to further expand its defense budget over the next decade to sustain readiness for a potential two-front conflict with regional adversaries China and Pakistan, while enhancing its regional and global stature. Total defense spending, inclusive of pensions, is projected to reach $415.9 billion from 2025 to 2029, marking a compound annual growth […]
JFD, the submarine rescue and escape training subsidiary of UK-based maritime engineering and energy company James Fisher and Sons plc, announced on 14 November that it had signed a new contract that aims to boost the Indian Navy’s underwater capabilities. The new contract represents a “significant” expansion of its ongoing partnership with the Indian Navy, […]
Gold prices are at historic highs, buoyed by India and China central bank buying in OTC markets. Further, all-time high levels of gold repatriation are underway, to vaults in Asia. Industry insiders and market experts are puzzled at the intensity and the timing of the gold buys, which seem divorced from economic fundamentals.
But these moves are an essential aspect of the BRICS countries’ de-risking from Western banking systems. Following the sanctions on Russia, whereby billions of dollars of Russian reserves in US and European banks were seized, China and India were strongly motivated to reduce their exposure to Western regulators. China sold off huge portfolios of US Treasury bonds, and both China and India demanded physical deliveries of gold previously held by European custodians.
