The Reporters’ Collective's latest investigation uncovered Asian News International’s new business model. It involved unleashing 'death row' strikes against Indian YouTubers to extract penalties ranging from Rs 15-40 lakh per year.
Your favourite YouTubers had to beg borrow and steal to pay off India’s largest newswire ANI.
YouTubers call this extortion, ANI thinks otherwise.
Part 1: ANI Finds Business Niche In Copyright Claims Against YouTubers
Part 2: YouTube Says it Doesn’t Judge Claims of Copyright Violation. We Found it Does
Part 3: ANI Shares with Court: It Has Taken up to Rs 45 Lakh from YouTubers
https://www.reporters-collective.in/trc/ani-shares-with-court-taken-up-to-45-lakh-from-youtubers
Reporter: Ayushi Kar
Story Editor: Nitin Sethi
Video Editor: Manas Gurung
Exposed: Modi government’s systematic attempt to discredit global ratings that show it in bad light.
Donate To The Reporters’ Collective: https://www.reporters-collective.in/support-us
The Investigation: How the Modi regime is running a government-wide operation to clean its global image. The primary target is international indices in which the Indian government fares badly. Indices that rank countries on hunger, poverty, democracy, rule of law among others. Optics is the priority, not governance.
How: Lobbying to bump up India's rankings, unleashing ministers to bash the indices, and creating homegrown indices with cherry-picked data. The investigation reveals how the entire operation is running under instructions from the top of the government.
Why do we call it Modi’s Ministry of Truth: In George Orwell’s dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, the main character Winston Smith works in the records department of the Ministry of Truth. The ministry’s job was to decide what is the truth. Propaganda was its sole purpose.
Read the investigation here: https://www.reporters-collective.in/projects/ministry-of-truth
Reporter: Shreegireesh Jalihal
Video Editor: Manas Gurung
Gautam Adani has been indicted in the US for allegedly bribing Indian officials to secure solar project contracts. Our investigation had revealed how BJP-ruled Maharashtra and Rajasthan crafted strikingly similar tender criteria that aligned perfectly with Adani Group’s business plans.
In quick succession, both states issued tenders for 25-year electricity supply contracts. A key clause in these tenders was that the producer should have the capability to supply power generated from both solar and thermal power plants together — an unusual specification that excluded most competitors.
The Collective’s Shreegireesh Jalihal uncovered how this unprecedented twin-source requirement effectively cleared the path for Adani Group, whose upcoming projects fit the criteria like a glove : https://www.reporters-collective.in/trc/two-power-tenders-by-bjp-ruled-states-favour-adani-group
Watch the full video to see how government policies tilted the scales in favor of Adani Group and limited competition.
Report: Shreegireesh Jalihal
Editor: Anoop George Philip
Video Editor: Manas Gurung
किसानों की आय दोगुनी करने के नाम पर लॉन्च हुआ PM-AASHA असल में खेती के निजीकरण की कोशिश बन गया है। MSP को सुरक्षित रखने के लिए बनाए गए PDPS सिस्टम वही किसानों का साथ छोड़ रहे हैं, जिनके लिए ये बने थे। हमारा नया वीडियो देखें।
PM AASHA में सामने आई मुश्किलों पर Shreegireesh Jalihal की पूरी रिपोर्ट पढ़ें। जहां नीति आयोग, योगी सरकार, और एक्सपर्ट्स ने केंद्र सरकार को इस घोटालेबाज़ स्कीम के बारे में पहले ही चेताया था।
ऐसी इन्वेस्टिगेशन में महीनों की मेहनत, हिम्मत और संसाधनों की जरूरत होती है।The Reporters’ Collective को सपोर्ट करें ताकि हम आपकी आवाज़ बनकर ताकतवर लोगों से सवाल पूछते रहें।
https://www.reporters-collective.in/support-us
Why would any government copy a scam-riddled model that has failed? The Modi government did. And guess what? It failed again. What we are talking about is the price protection scheme for farmers, officially known as Price Deficiency Payment System (PDPS). It was the key part of the PM AASHA scheme launched in 2019 to protect farmers from fluctuations in prices of pulses and oilseeds.
The price deficiency payment system promised to top up the earnings if farmers earned less than the government-fixed Minimum Support Price (MSP) for pulses and oilseeds. The Union government had adopted the scheme from Madhya Pradesh despite the state government scrapping it within six months of launch. The reason: A flaw in the scheme’s design allowed traders to manipulate and rig prices.
Internal documents reveal that quite a few had warned the Union government against scaling up a failed scheme nationally. The government’s think tank Niti Aayog raised concerns. The majority of states said no to the scheme, including the BJP-ruled Uttar Pradesh government which said the model could lead to cartelisation.
Researchers commissioned to study the state model’s fiasco and independent experts warned against adopting the scheme. They all said, in more or less the same words, that the state’s model has to be rewired before scaling it up nationally. But the Modi government pushed ahead with the scheme, and sold it as a boon for farmers. But why? Maybe to reap election dividends. The scheme was rolled out ahead of the 2019 election and was prominently plastered across BJP’s manifesto.
As The Reporters' Collective previously reported, the scheme launched by Modi actually served as a dummy while the actual job of supporting farmers was done by an older UPA-era direct procurement scheme. A budget trick clubbed the two together to make the newly launched PDPS scheme appear larger than it actually is. PM AASHA is an example of the government’s impulsive and underfunded policy decisions that talk a good game of assisting farmers but fall short on real solutions. They merely serve the purpose of making an impression before crucial elections.
What’s worse? Internally, the government admitted what it would not publicly — that it’s anxious about putting more money into the hands of farmers for fear of inflation.
Read the full story by Shreegireesh Jalihal here:
Donate to The Reporters’ Collective here:
Reporter: Shreegireesh Jalihal
Story Editor: Anoop George Philip
Cameraperson: Tapasya
Video Editor: Manas Gurung
#TRCMasterclass The 2025 budget is around the corner, our budget expert Dr Dipa Sinha, Assistant Professor at Ambedkar University Delhi, conducted an online workshop ‘Understanding The Budget’ for those of us who find it challenging to understand the Union budget, what goes into making it happen, and how we can track or use it to our advantage when writing about it. It was hosted by TRC member, Nitin Sethi. This is a recording of the workshop, if you missed this Masterclass session.
Key topics discussed:
• Basics of government budgets to make sense of the numbers
• Where to find the numbers in the documents
• How to use them for stories long after the budget is presented
• Analyze ministry, sector and program allocations
• Tracking budget trends
Manas Gurung
The Reporters’ Collective investigation reveals Modi government’s attempts to make inroads into the RBI and nibble away its independence in setting the country’s monetary policy. Somesh Jha of The Collective tells you how the Modi government that brought in the independent monetary policy framework defeated its key goals of transparency and accountability, and broke down the firewalls shielding RBI from political interference.
Video Editing, Motion Graphics and Production Design: Asad Ali and Pawanjot Kaur
Script: Somesh Jha
Reporting: Somesh Jha
#ParliamentDefied, The Reporters’ Collective examines the assurances given by politicians to Parliament, and their outcomes. The Collective analysed over 100 parliamentary reports, spanning thousands of pages, documenting pledges by 55 ministries over the last five years. Assurances in Parliament are meant to be reliable, but were they? Our stories reveal the stark reality of government assurances, and the failure of mechanisms to ensure government accountability.
Support us by donating here: https://www.reporters-collective.in/s...
The Reporters’ Collective collaboratively produces investigative journalism. In many languages and mediums. We report truthfully and bring out facts that the powerful prefer to keep hidden from citizens.
Besides courage and integrity, such reporting requires resources. We need your support. We need citizens to donate to keep us going and keep our work free to read for those who can’t afford to pay. Your donations will help us remain independent and work without fear.
Read the entire 8 part series in English and Hindi here: https://www.reporters-collective.in/the-assurance-project-series
Manas Gurung
How the State failed Manipur#manipur has been embroiled in an armed ethnic conflict for over a year now. More than 60,000 ordinary citizens have been affected. But, who among the powerful is to blame for it? The Reporters’ Collective member Angana Chakrabarti dug-in for months to bring out hard evidence. Of state complicity that indicts the state chief minister, N Biren Singh as well as the armed groups, political actors and drug lords cutting across ethnic boundaries. She explains why religion was not a factor behind the conflict. Watch to find out more.
Read the two part series here:https://www.reporters-collective.in/p...
To see more such content consider donating to The Reporters' Collective.https://www.reporters-collective.in/s...
Manas Gurung
In 2020, PM Narendra Modi promised a common eligibility exam to hire young Indians for jobs in the Union government. Four years later, the youth are still waiting.
Read the report by TRC Investigative Reporting Fellow Suchak Patel here:
English: https://www.reporters-collective.in/t...
Hindi: https://www.reporters-collective.in/t...
This video was possible thanks to our supporters, who've encouraged us to launch an ambitious fellowship program. To see more such talented investigative journalists get the opportunity they deserve, donate now.
Manas Gurung
Sainik Schools, run under the Defence Ministry’s guidance, send cadets to India’s armed forces. The new initiative however relies on ideologically slanted organisations to train future cadets.
This report has been awarded the 2024 Human Rights Religious Freedom Journalism Award : https://hrrfjawards.com/winners-2024/
Read the full story here : https://www.reporters-collective.in/t...
Read the Hindi version of the story here: https://www.reporters-collective.in/t...
The Reporters’ Collective collaboratively produces investigative journalism in many languages and mediums. We report truthfully and bring out facts that the powerful prefer to keep hidden from citizens.Support us by donating here: https://www.reporters-collective.in/s...
Manas Gurung
When asked to furnish #Electoralbonds data, SBI limps before SC. But it used to bolt for the government. Nitin Sethi and Tapasya dig into RTI documents to show how SBI served information and data on the bonds to the government in a jiffy.
Pawanjot Kaur
The Income Tax department has asked donors to divulge details of all contributions made to political parties through cash, cheque, or any other mode. Enforcement agencies will soon have this data, but the citizens will stay in the dark.
Pawanjot Kaur and Tapasya
In the past few years, at least half a dozen states have adopted profiling software to predict the eligibility of citizens for welfare schemes. These algorithms have wrongly declared the alive as dead, the poor as well-off, the disabled as able-bodied, robbing thousands of subsidised food, old-age pension, disability pension, widow pensions, and other welfare benefits for the poor. An investigation into how states are using artificial intelligence in an unintelligent way, at the cost of citizens. With support from the Pulitzer Center’s AI Accountability Network.
Pawanjot Kaur
Niti Aayog CEO BVR Subrahmanyam reveals Modi held backdoor negotiations with the Finance Commission to cut tax funds allocated to states, and says gov't finances are so shady, they could be hit by a 'Hindenburg'.
Pawanjot Kaur
Pawanjot Kaur, Vikas Thakur, Anoop George, Tapasya and Shreegireesh Jalihal
Pawanjot Kaur, Anoop George and Angana Chakrabarti
India is going to set up a carbon market. This is one of India’s answers to climate change and global warming. But what exactly is a carbon market? How does India plan for industries to buy and sell a gas it does not even produce? What does the country and the companies gain from carbon trade? And how does it help us fight climate change? If at all.
Tapasya and Pawanjot Kaur
प्रधान मंत्री मोदी ने 15 अगस्त 2021 को लाल किले से 80 करोड़ लोगों को फोर्टिफाइड चावल पीडीएस के जरिए खिलाने की घोषणा की। कई सरकारी अफसरों ने इस अधपकी नीति के खिलाफ एतराज जताया। मगर इसके बावजूद सरकार ने 80 करोड़ लोगों तक यह चावल पहुंचाने का फैसला ले लिया है। द रिपोर्टर्स कलेक्टिव की छानबीन से पता चलता है कि सरकार के इस फैसले के पीछे कई ऐसे नॉन प्रॉफिट संगठन का हाथ है जिनके पीछे फोर्टिफिकेशन प्री मिक्स बनाने वाली कंपनी है।
Pawanjot Kaur, Ajay Kumar and Shreegireesh Jalihal
Over three months The Reporters' Collective reviewed thousands of pages of death registers from Gujarat municipalities. In these registers the passing away of people is first recorded by citizens. Unlike the government, these records do not lie. An analysis of the data in register shows more than 2.8 lakh excess deaths have occurred in the state during the pandemic. But, the state government claims only 10,075 people have died due to Covid-19. Meticulous analysis coupled with investigations on ground reveal the level of grief that Gujarat's people have suffered. Many of these lives could have been saved.
Production: Pawanjot Kaur
Narration: Somesh Jha
Reporters: Shreegireesh Jalihal, Tapasya and Nitin Sethi
2014 में उच्चतम न्यायालय ने 204 कोयला खदानों के आवंटन को रद्द घोषित कर दिया था। भाजपा सरकार (केंद्रीय और राज्य) ने नियमों में बदलाव किया जिसकी वजह से अडानी समूह को कोयला घोटाले वाली दो खदानें वापस मिली। 2020 में PMO ने नीति आयोग के CEO को एक पत्र में लिखा, यह नियम पारदर्शी ना होने के कारण इसे आगे लागू नहीं किया जाएगा। सिर्फ़ अडानी को इन नियमों में बदलाव से फ़ायदा पहुँचा। The Narendra Modi government brought in a law allowing firms to revive coal deals that the Supreme Court found illegal in 2014, For years Adani Group was the only beneficiary of the law. Though the Modi Government later internally admitted that rules lacked transparency and were “inappropriate”, the government allowed Adani to continue with the deals.
Pawanjot Kaur, Ajay Kumar, Shreegireesh Jalihal and Kumar Sambhav
खाताधारकों की अनुमति के बिना मोदी सरकार की बीमा योजनाएं ( PMJJBY, PMSBY, APY) बैंकों के जरिए उनपर थोपी जा रही हैं। उनके खाते से पैसे काटे जा रहे हैं। इस पूरे मसले पर द रिपोर्टर्स कलेक्टिव की तरफ से रिपोर्टर हेमंत गैरोला ने छानबीन की है। छानबीन कर यह पता लगाया है कि सरकारी और प्राइवेट बैंकों में ग्राहकों के साथ बड़े पैमाने पर धांधली चल रही है। इस पूरी छानबीन को इस वीडियो के जरिए पेश किया गया है।
Pawanjot Kaur, Ajay Kumar and Hemant Gairola
दिसंबर २ की रात १९८४, मध्य प्रदेश की राजधानी में एक अकल्पनीय त्रासदी घटित हुई जिसमें ३,००० लोगों की हत्या हुई। यूनियन कार्बाइड के प्लांट में से मिथाइल इसोसनाईट का रिसाव हुआ।कुछ दिन बाद यूनियन कार्बाइड के CEO भारत आये उन्हें लापरवाही और असावधानी के कारण जेल भेज दिया गया। वो मात्र 25000 रुपये की जमानत दे कर छूट गए और राजनैतिक सहायता से २४ घंटों में भारत से भाग गए।भारत से व्यापार कायम रखने के लिए यूनियन कार्बाइड ने डमी कंपनियों का इस्तेमाल किया। कई गवर्मेंट (केंद्र और राज्य) कंपनियों के साथ और कई निजी कंपनियों के साथ भी इनका व्यापर १४ साल तक चलता रहा ।यह व्यापार तब तक चलता रहा जब तक डाव केमिकल्स ने इसे खरीद लिया।वीसा पेट्रोकेमिकल्स लिमिटेड, मेगा ग्लोबल सर्विसेज और मेगा वीसा सोलूशन्स ऐसी कुछ नामभर (डमी) कंपनियां थी जिनके बदौलत यूनियन कार्बाइड ने भारत में व्यापार किया।#CarbidePapersExposé
Pawanjot Kaur, Ajay Kumar
Under India’s Supplementary Nutrition Programme, anganwadis provide nutritious food to millions of children under 6 years of age. But the Union government’s decision to make Aadhaar a must for the scheme could close the door on millions.
Reporter: Tapasya
Producer: Pawanjot Kaur
An #investigation conducted by #TheReportersCollective for The Quint has found that only 19 political parties have received funds from #ElectoralBonds, an instrument introduced in 2018 through which anyone can anonymously donate money to political parties.
The Quint in collaboration with The Reporters' Collective.
The Reporters' Collective's member Kumar Sambhav and ad.watch's Nayantara Ranganathan summarise the year-long probe into political advertisements on Facebook. We investigated more than 5 lakh political advertisements on Facebook and Instagram to assess the influence of Facebook on election campaigns in India. We found evidence that the social media giant's policies and algorithm systematically undercut political competition in the world's largest democracy by giving unfair advantage to BJP.
Camera: Richard Kujur & Jessica Goel
Video Editing & Motion Graphics: Richard Kujur
Production & Video Design: Pawanjot Kaur
Script: Somesh Jha & Pawanjot Kaur
Reporting: Kumar Sambhav, Nayantara Ranganathan & Shreegireesh Jalihal
जानिए मोदी सरकार कैसे कोरोना पर अपने वैज्ञानिकों और विशेषज्ञों की राय को एक महीने से ऊपर तक अनदेखा करती रही. और इस वजह से महामारी के तीन महीने गुज़र जाने के बाद भी सरकार के पास न तो कोरोना की टेस्टिंग और मॉनिटरिंग की रणनीति थी न ही पर्याप्त मेडिकल इक्विपमेंट्स। वैज्ञानिकों ने बंद कमरे में हुई मीटिंग में ये माना की लॉकडाउन की वजह से लोग कोरोना के लक्षण होने के बावजूद भी अस्पतालों में टेस्टिंग के लिए नहीं जा पा रहे थे.
Director and Anchor: Hridayesh Joshi
Editor: Amrit Raj
Reporters: Nitin Sethi and Kumar Sambhav
मोदी सरकार ने देश में लॉकडाउन लगाते वक़्त सरकार की सबसे बड़ी मेडिकल रिसर्च बॉडी ICMR की सलाह को अनदेखा किया ये बात हमने अपनी पड़ताल में आपको बताई थी। लेकिन क्या आपको पता है कि सरकार जब लॉकडाउन हटा रही है तब भी वह उन नियमों का पालन नहीं कर रही जो उसके आला वैज्ञानिकों और पब्लिक हेल्थ एक्सपर्ट्स ने सुझाये हैं। जानकारों का कहना है कि इस तरह से उठाये जा रहे कदमों से कोरोना के मरीज़ों की संख्या का ग्राफ फिर उछल सकता है। देखिये रिपोर्टर्स कलेक्टिविक की नई पड़ताल में हमें क्या पता चला है?
Director and Anchor: Hridayesh Joshi
Editor: Amrit Raj
Reporters: Mridula Chari and Nitin Sethi
सरकार ने देश पर थोपी गयी लॉकडाउन के बारे में जनता को क्या नहीं बताया? कोरोना पर हमारी खोजी ख़बरों की कड़ी का ये पहला भाग सरकारी दस्तावेजों के आधार पर सरकार के झूठे दावों का खुलासा करता है।
Director and Anchor: Hridayesh Joshi
Editor: Amrit Raj
Reporters: Nitin Sethi and Kumar Sambhav
The union government, in 2014, sold off a copy of the entire database of India's vehicle registration details to a Delhi-based company that developed an entire business model out of selling solutions based on this data.
Multiple officials within the ministry raised several objections over the fact that the deal went ahead without any price discovery mechanisms in place, effectively selling off citizen data for cheap to the firm. The Reporters’ Collective investigated the truth behind the matter.
Video Production: The Logical Indian
Reporter: Shreegireesh Jalihal
Shreegireesh Jalihal and Nitin Sethi, members of The Reporters' Collective, talk about Modi government's new opaque pulse auction regime with senior broadcast journalist Hridayesh Joshi.The Collective found that the auction method used to mill pulses under welfare schemes for poor and armed forces allowed millers to make unchecked profits for years, hammering the public exchequer and the quality of pulses supplied.
Video Director and Anchor: Hridayesh Joshi
Video Editor: Amrit Raj
Reporters: Shreegireesh Jalihal, Nitin Sethi
