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Birds in data: Counting cuckoos and other stories

20 March 2019
Many legends abound about the monsoon in India — but none so delightful as that around the Jacobin pied cuckoo. A slender black and white cuckoo, the bird is easily identifiable with its long tail and distinctive crest. Even in flight, one can easily spot the bird by the white patches on its wings and […]

The dark hand of tech that stokes sex traficking in India

25 February 2019
A gripping narrative of Farzana, a sex trafficking survivor, who was lured by false promises of love and opportunity-- her journey unveils the disturbing nexus between technology and exploitation, shedding light on the hidden horrors of modern-day slavery.

Behind the glamour of YouTube are wrung out stars

27 November 2018
Unveiling the journey through YouTube stardom, this narrative exposes the challenges creators face in maintaining a relentless pace of content creation, combating online harassment, and striving to find equilibrium amid the unpredictable sway of algorithms. It illuminates the unseen hardships lurking behind the digital screen.

Chinese app Kwai turns a blind eye to videos of underage girls in India

15 November 2018
Kwai, a Chinese short-video app, faced challenges in moderating sensitive content involving underage users in India. This story examines how the platform’s policies struggled to keep up, sparking important conversations about digital safety and content regulation in the online space.

Telltale Stripes

05 November 2018
A tiger skin seized in Nepal is traced back to a specific tiger in India using advanced software and a vast database of tiger images. This story highlights the effectiveness of modern technology in combating wildlife crime and protecting endangered species

An open source resistance takes shape as tech giants race to map the world

24 September 2018
Through the journey of the dedicated contributors in the OpenStreetMap community in India, this story explores the rise of OpenStreetMap community, highlighting its role in disaster relief and urban planning.

How the fight against child porn took two ordinary men to the internet’s darkest corners

21 May 2018
In December 22, just before the long Christmas weekend last year, a 25-year-old man from Wandoor, one of several small towns strewn across Malappuram in north Kerala, was arrested by the state police. Kodakkadan Sharaf Ali was in possession of child pornography, a crime that could lead to five years of imprisonment. People have been […]

Jamtara, where India is winning its war on cyber crime

07 May 2018
Mein cyber hoon (I am a cyber),” says Mandal, who looks a teenager but insists he’s 21 years old. In these parts – Karmatand and elsewhere in the villages of Jamtara, Madhupur, and Dumka of eastern Jharkhand – the frequently-used “cyber” in Hindi and Bengali refers to cybercrime and those dabbling in cybercrime, both petty and […]

India’s Bitcoin Ponzi king and the thousands he duped stare at a turbid future

16 April 2018
Amit Bhardwaj’s GainBitcoin network unraveled into one of India’s largest cryptocurrency Ponzi schemes. The fraudulent operation exposed the risks of unregulated digital investments, impacting thousands of investors and prompting significant legal and regulatory scrutiny.

Meet India’s women Open Source warriors

05 February 2018
“Shut the f**k up”“Feminism sucks” As Vaishali Thakker, a 23-year old open source programmer looked over the hall filled with around 200 people, she didn’t know how to react to what she had just heard. Thakker was one of the five women on the stage at PyCon India 2017, a conference on the use of […]

Perpetrators, platforms, processes:The common enemies of the Indian online harassed

17 December 2017
Silence is defeat: This story explores a woman's fight to reclaim her dignity in the digital age.

India’s big data hunt for cures to its mental, ageing related diseases

27 November 2017
As India’s population rapidly ages, a crisis looms. This story aims at understanding the complexities of India's aging population.