Bengaluru, July 23, 2020: The Siddi community, India’s little known African-origin tribe, got its first lawmaker on July 23. Shantharama Budna Siddi was among five people nominated to the Karnataka Legislative Council by Governor Vajubhai Vala. The Siddis are said to have descended from the people of the East AfricanContinue Reading

By Sanjana Ganesh Madurai, July 21, 2020: Fortune has finally smiled on a 17-year-old girl from the fortune tellers’ community in Tamil Nadu, southern India. G Dhevayani from the nomadic tribe has been flooded with scholarship offers after she topped her school in the 12th grade board exams. She scoredContinue Reading

By Matters India Reporter Mumbai, July 18, 2020: Shaison P Ouseph represented India at the third International Youth Summit 2020 (online), conducted by WSDA (Workplace Skills Development Academy), New Zealand. Shaison is an internationally acclaimed, award winning documentary filmmaker based in Mumbai, and is the course head for Film TelevisionContinue Reading

By Anjana Varma Shillong, July 12, 2020: Salesian Father Manoj Abraham Churuliyil is the director of Shillong’s Don Bosco Centre for Indigenous Cultures and Museum. The native of the southern Indian state of Kerala wears many hats — he is a Council Member of Salesian Province of Shillong, professor atContinue Reading

By Purushottam Nayak Sambalpur, July 3, 2020: Divine Word Father Lancy Rodrigues has become the rector of a major seminary in Odisha, eastern India, when the Church in India reels under a series of suicide cases involving Catholic priests. Father Rodrigues, who will turn 65 on July 5, took overContinue Reading

By Dr. George Jacob Kochi, June 30, 2020: As National Doctors’ Day is being celebrated on July 1, I wish to salute an unheralded, ‘camera-shy,’ ‘publicity-loathing’ doctor friend of mine. We did post-graduation in General Surgery together at Medical College, Kottayam in Kerala in early 1990s. Brilliance in academics helpedContinue Reading

By Purushottam Nayak Bhubaneswar, June 25, 2020: Jishaya Nayak, a migrant worker in Kerala, southwestern India, had given up hope of returning home amid the protracted nationwide lockdown. The 23-year-old Catholic youth from Gajapati district in the eastern Indian Odisha state was among some 300 migrants stranded because of theContinue Reading