Vignesh Radhakrishnan

Chennai

Principal Correspondent at The Hindu

Principal Correspondent @the_hindu, Past @httweets, Ex @infosys engineer, @ACJindia graduate https://t.co/eOopvDahlf

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Articles

Govt. data confirms massive undercount of pandemic deaths| Data

2 days ago | thehindu.com | Samreen Wani |Vignesh Radhakrishnan

In 2021, an analysis of excess deaths — the increase in the death tally over expected numbers based on previous years (2015-2019) — shows that the number was nearly six times more than the reported COVID-19 death toll. This was the year when the delta variant of the SARS-COV-2 virus wreaked havoc across the country. Some States had a much higher multiple than the national average.
J&K’s economy and tourism in peril after Pahalgam massacre

1 week ago | thehindu.com | Nitika Francis |Vignesh Radhakrishnan

The targeted killings of tourists in Pahalgam in Jammu and Kashmir took place at a time when the region was witnessing a tourism boom. The number of visitors was at a 15-year high and the Union Territory (UT)’s own revenue generation had started showing signs of improvement. The home States of the victims reflected the diversity of tourists that the Valley had began attracting.
J&K’s economy and tourism in peril after Pahalgam massacre

1 week ago | flipboard.com | Nitika Francis |Vignesh Radhakrishnan

General Asim Munir, like many Pakistan Army chiefs before him, is the most powerful man in his country. But he is different from his predecessors in …
Indians fear fake news but are less concerned about press freedom

2 weeks ago | thehindu.com | Sambavi Parthasarathy |Vignesh Radhakrishnan

In India, while there is widespread anxiety about misinformation and fake news, people largely do not attribute it to government influence. Instead, a relatively large share do not mind greater state censorship, according to the latest survey by the Pew Research Center. Survey data suggests that while distrust in fake news is high, confidence in systemic solutions such as a free press remains low.
Liberals ride the anti-Trump wave to victory in Canada

2 weeks ago | thehindu.com | Vignesh Radhakrishnan

It is rare for the results of an elections in one country to be swayed by the leader of a neighbouring country. Yet that was the case in Canada’s 2025 federal election, where U.S. President Donald Trump’s statements and actions dramatically shifted the national mood within days. While the Conservative Party was expected to win decisively, Mr. Trump’s tariffs and his provocative suggestion of annexing Canada helped rescue the Liberal Party from a crushing defeat.
U.S. tariffs: China had rerouted exports to stay on top till 2023

2 weeks ago | thehindu.com | Nitika Francis |Vignesh Radhakrishnan

Trade data shows that despite facing tariff headwinds from the U.S., the world’s largest importer, China, the world’s largest exporter, has managed to increase its overall exports, till at least 2023. A series of tariff escalations by the U.S. on Chinese products from 2018 led to fewer imports by the U.S. from China in the following years. Despite this, China’s share in global exports rose from around 13% in the years before the tariff escalations to 15% in the years following them.
U.S. visas issued to Indian students decline by 30% in Trump’s first month of presidency

3 weeks ago | thehindu.com | Vignesh Radhakrishnan |Sambavi Parthasarathy

In February 2025, the first month of the second Donald Trump administration, the number of student visas issued to Indians by the U.S. dropped by 30% compared to the same month the previous year. This decline was notably higher than the overall 4.75% decrease in student visas granted by the U.S. to all countries combined. Moreover, the drop in student visas issued to Indians was much sharper than the decline in visas issued to Chinese, Vietnamese, and Japanese students.
Democracy and federalism in the delimitation debate

1 month ago | thehindu.com | Varghese K. George |Vignesh Radhakrishnan

In the ongoing debate on delimitation, a conflict between a principle of democracy and one of federalism has become apparent. ‘One person, one vote, one value’ is a principle of India’s electoral system. What this should mean in practice, at a minimum, is that all Lok Sabha constituencies should have roughly the same number of electors. The Indian republic is constituted as a “union of States”. States are the constituent units, and they have their individual identity and power.
Watch: Do schools in north India teach southern languages? | Data Point

1 month ago | thehindu.com | Vignesh Radhakrishnan

With the debate over Tamil Nadu’s refusal to adopt the three-language policy still ongoing, the latest data needed to address key questions on the issue is lacking. Vital data that could help bring clarity is the list of languages currently being taught in schools across the States. DMK MP Kanimozhi Karunanidhi raised this question in the Lok Sabha last month. However, the reply only provided the share of schools that taught three languages without mentioning the specific languages.
Third language choice: Hindi in non-Hindi States, Sanskrit in Hindi-belt

1 month ago | thehindu.com | Vignesh Radhakrishnan |Sambavi Parthasarathy |Maitri Porecha

With the debate over Tamil Nadu’s refusal to adopt the three-language policy still ongoing, the latest data needed to address key questions on the issue is lacking. Vital data that could help bring clarity is the list of languages currently being taught in schools across the States. Notably, DMK MP Kanimozhi Karunanidhi raised this question in the Lok Sabha (LS) last month. However, the reply only provided the share of schools that taught three-languages, without mentioning the specific languages.