My time in India is coming to an end. It has been the privilege of my career to cover this wonderful country (and its wonderful neighbors) for a second time. I’d like to thank a few people. Brace yourselves, this will be a doozy. 1/many First, a warm Delhi-in-the-monsoon welcome to @gerryshih, the new India Bureau Chief for the @washingtonpost. Our coverage is in excellent hands.

This group of Indian activists has been jailed for years without trial. The evidence against them was planted, digital forensic reports found. They were also potential targets of Pegasus spyware, our reporting found: #PegasusProject 1/ washingtonpost.com/world/2021/07/… More than a dozen Indian activists have been imprisoned and accused of plotting to overthrow the government in what is known as the Bhima Koregaon case. 2/ washingtonpost.com/world/2021/07/…

How extensively was Pegasus spyware used in the world’s largest democracy? We found forensic evidence that it was active on Indian phones as recently as *last week*. Read more here and below… 1/ washingtonpost.com/world/2021/07/… More than 1,000 numbers in India were on the list for possible targeting. The partners in the project verified more than 300 of the numbers and performed forensic analysis on 22 smartphones in all. 2/ washingtonpost.com/world/2021/07/…

Introducing the Pegasus Project: a collaborative investigation involving more than 80 journalists on 4 continents showing how powerful spyware licensed only to governments targeted journalists, activists and more. washingtonpost.com/investigations… 1/ I'll be threading coverage by the Washington Post and our partners here as it is published in this multi-day project 2/

NEW: *Two* Indian activists accused of plotting to overthrow the government were targeted by the same hacker who planted incriminating evidence on both of their computers. @nihamasih and I report:
washingtonpost.com/world/2021/07/… Some important takeaways from this new analysis by @arsenalarmed in the Bhima Koregaon case… 2/ washingtonpost.com/world/2021/07/…

Stan Swamy, a Jesuit priest who spent his life working for the rights of one of India's most disadvantaged communities, was jailed last fall on controversial charges despite being in his 80s and suffering from Parkinson's disease. He died today. /1

https://twitter.com/BhardwajAnanya/status/1411979262731505678

Key evidence in the case was planted, an American digital forensics firm found: /2
washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pac…

India’s devastating surge is much more deadly than statistics indicate. Here’s a sampling of what we found in three states looking at obituaries and crematorium figures and why this is happening... (1/x) washingtonpost.com/world/2021/05/… 1) RAJKOT

On April 21, more than 240 obituaries in the local edition of Sandesh, a four-fold increase from earlier this year.

Official deaths that day: 12
washingtonpost.com/world/2021/05/…

After months of relentless increases in cases, India gets a small respite for the first time since the pandemic began. Doctors on the front lines of the virus fight say the number of patients they’re treating has fallen by more than half in recent weeks. wapo.st/3ku37OY “There is definitely some relief, but it is no time to celebrate,” said @epigiri, an epidemiologist at the Public Health Foundation of India. “We might have these ups and downs for some time.” washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pac…

We dug into India’s mysteriously low coronavirus fatality figures. We found both misreported deaths and signs of “excess” unexplained deaths linked to the pandemic /1 washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pac… In Vadodara, the number of coronavirus cases rose by more than 2,000 since June, but the official death count barely budged from 57 to 60. Meanwhile, one hospital alone has recorded 100 Covid-19 deaths. 2/

We began working on this story in today’s Washington Post well before the pandemic. India’s ability to chart a low-carbon future could be *the* deciding factor in the global fight against climate change. There is plenty of cause for worry – but also some reason for hope /1 India is expected to be the world’s most populous country by 2027. It also wants to give its citizens a higher material standard of living. But that will take energy – lots of it. 2/

1/ Any fans of zombie statistics out there? I have a tale for you… There’s a dramatic figure that has circulated for the past year saying that 21 major Indian cities are expected to run out of groundwater by 2020, affecting 100 million people 2/ Alarming, right? Unsurprisingly, this figure is all over the Indian and international media. Now follow me down the rabbit hole…