In late 2018 the research institute r.i.c.e. surveyed rural Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. It found that 44 percent of rural people over two years old still defecated in the open.
Among people whose households had a toilet, 23 percent continued to defecate in the open, Down To Earth reported.
Under Rule 138(3) of the Central Motor Vehicles Rules, passengers in front-facing rear seats must wear seat belts. In a survey in 11 cities by the SaveLIFE Foundation and Nissan, reported in January 2019, only 7 percent of motorists wore rear seat belts regularly. Observers counted 1.8 percent of rear passengers wearing them.
In September 2022 the industrialist Cyrus Mistry died in a car crash. Police said that both people who died had not worn seat belts. The transport minister, Nitin Gadkari, said: “Already, it’s mandatory to wear seatbelt at the rear seat but people are not following it.”
In May 2024, cabin crew of Air India Express reported sick in large numbers. Al Jazeera, citing NDTV, reported nearly 300. Around 90 flights were cancelled. The crew were protesting against what they saw as unequal treatment in the merger of the Tata group’s airlines, and against new hiring and promotion policies.
The airline sent termination letters to 25 crew members. It described a “pre-meditated and concerted abstention from work without any justifiable reason.” After talks, it withdrew the letters.
On July 1, 2022, a national ban on identified single-use plastic items took effect. The Ministry of Environment had prohibited their manufacture, import, stocking, distribution, sale and use.
A later study by the consumer organization Consumer VOICE found banned items still available at 88 percent of the places surveyed in Delhi and at 55 percent in Bengaluru.
In 1986 Parliament passed the Indian Post Office (Amendment) Bill. President Zail Singh neither signed it nor sent it back to Parliament. The bill remained in limbo. His silence became known as a pocket veto.
In 1990 the government of V.P. Singh withdrew the bill.
The governor of Tamil Nadu, R.N. Ravi, held back ten bills that the state assembly had passed a second time. On April 8, 2025, two judges of the Supreme Court found his delay illegal. They set time limits for governors and the President and declared the bills assented to.
On November 20, 2025, answering a reference from the President, a Constitution Bench held that courts cannot fix such timelines and that deemed assent is not consistent with the Constitution. It added that governors “cannot sit on Bills indefinitely.”
Taal-matol: putting off. The Rekhta dictionary defines it as postponing a task instead of completing it, and also as the excuse made in order to postpone.
Aaj kal karna: to say today, tomorrow. Rekhta gives the same meaning, to put off, and adds a second one: to put someone off with a false promise.
On February 2, 2021, a member of Parliament asked about revising the income limit for the “creamy layer” among the Other Backward Classes. The Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment replied in the Lok Sabha.
The “proposal for revision of creamy layer limit for OBCs is under consideration of the Government,” he said. The answer gave no date and no decision.