Annie Banerji

From blackouts, a racing heart, extreme fatigue and brain fog, to severe depression and anxiety, DVL Padma Priya was hit with a constellation of symptoms in 2020, just months after recovering from COVID-19.

But without a name for her condition, or support from health professionals, she said she struggled to understand what was wrong.

India's government has announced social security benefits, including healthcare, for about 10 million gig workers in its latest budget, in a boost to a growing workforce that is demanding greater social and labour rights.

Presenting the annual budget, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman hailed gig workers employed through platforms like Amazon, Uber and India's Zomato.

The world's billionaires' wealth grew by $2 trillion in 2024, at a rate three times faster than the previous year largely due to inheritance, powerful connections and corruption, according to anti-poverty group Oxfam.

A report by the British charity, which was issued as business elites gather this week for the annual World Economic Forum (WEF) meeting in Davos, found that an average of nearly four new billionaires were "minted" weekly.

Elections in countries that are home to almost half of the world’s population made this the biggest election year on record and will shape how the world is governed in 2025.

From Taiwan’s general election in January to the U.S. presidential race in November, more than 2 billion people – an all-time record – went to the polls in 2024.

Pollution readings in India's capital New Delhi hit their highest in this pre-winter season, forcing the government to restrict vehicle movement and construction, and urging schools to give classes online.

India's Central Pollution Control Board showed Delhi's 24-hour air quality index (AQI) reading hit 494 on a scale of 500 on Monday.

Cool-season winds and burning fields unleash an annual scourge of toxic air that kills tens of thousands of Indians a year, say researchers, urging tighter air quality standards to save lives.

About 7.2% of all deaths in India are attributable to a daily exposure to small and hazardous airborne particles known as PM2.5, according to a July study by The Lancet.

A landmark report that revealed widespread sexual harassment and exploitation of women in a southern Indian film industry must be a "wake-up call" for men in cinema, said Bina Paul, a founder of a female rights group that pushed for the investigation.

The report by the three-member Hema Committee has rocked "Mollywood" - as the Malayalam film and TV industry is known - since its release last month, with a series of sex abuse allegations against some top male celebrities, resignations by men in powerful posts, as well as police investigations.

Digital rights activists and online content creators welcomed a decision by India's government to rewrite a contentious broadcast bill that they feared would have censored speech on the internet.

But they warned the government could still keep some of the more onerous provisions in new versions of the bill that could curtail India's flourishing digital landscape as the country becomes increasingly connected online.

Food delivery driver John Jay Chan has had no protections from the record-breaking heatwaves that have hit the Philippines in recent months, but he must continue to work nine-hour days to provide for his family.

"We understand that the nature of our work means we're exposed to extreme heat," said Chan, a 30-year-old father of two, who has been a motorbike gig worker for the past six years.

A year after women staged mass protests against working conditions at India's popular home services app, Urban Company, female gig workers face a tough present and a highly uncertain future.

A decade ago, Urban Company emerged as a beacon of hope for women wanting to gain economic independence in a country with one of the lowest numbers of female workers in the world — on their own terms and in their own time.