Malegaon is a city and a municipal corporation in Nashik District in the Indian state of Maharashtra. Malegaon is one of the largest cities in North Maharashtra. It is situated on the bank of the Girna river with Mosam River river flowing through middle of the city dividing it in two parts. Malegaon is famous for its loom industries.
The Indian Medical Association (IMA) is a private, national voluntary organisation of physicians in India. It was established in 1928 as the All India Medical Association, and was renamed the Indian Medical Association in 1930. It is a society registered under The Societies Act of India.
Misinformation is incorrect or misleading information. Misinformation can exist without specific malicious intent; disinformation is distinct in that it is deliberately deceptive and propagated. Misinformation can include inaccurate, incomplete, misleading, or false information as well as selective or half-truths.
Swami Ramdev, known also by the prefix Baba, is an Indian yoga guru, businessman and brand ambassador for Patanjali Ayurved. He is primarily known for being a proponent of yoga and ayurveda in India. Ramdev has been organizing and conducting large yoga camps since 2002 and broadcasting his yoga classes on various TV channels. He co-founded Patanjali Ayurved and Patanjali Yogpeeth with his colleague Balkrishna in 2006. Ramdev has received criticism over his comments related to modern medicine, yoga, and ayurveda.
Siddha medicine is a form of traditional medicine originating in southern India. It is one of the oldest systems of medicine in India.
The Ministry of Ayush, a ministry of the Government of India, is responsible for developing education, research and propagation of traditional medicine and alternative medicine systems in India. Ayush is a name devised from the names of the alternative healthcare systems covered by the ministry: ayurveda, yoga & naturopathy, Unani, Siddha, Sowa Rigpa, and homeopathy.
The number of Indian students studying outside India rapidly increased by 163% between 1999 and 2006 to reach 145,539 as compared to slower growth of 25% between 2006 and 2013 to reach 181,872, according to an analysis of UNESCO data. As of January 2021, more than 1 million Indian students are studying in 85 countries outside India. More than 50% of Indian students study in North America.
Swarajya is an Indian right-wing monthly print magazine and news portal. The publication reports favourably on the Bharatiya Janata Party and has published misinformation on many occasions.
Gagandeep Kang FRS is an Indian microbiologist and virologist who has been leading the work on enteric diseases, diarrheal infections and disease surveillance at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation since 2023.
Alt News is an Indian non-profit fact checking website founded and run by former software engineer Pratik Sinha and Mohammed Zubair. It was launched on 9 February 2017 to combat fake news. In October 2022 Harsh Mander, along with the campaign he launched in 2017, Karwan-e-Mohabbat, a campaign supporting and showing solidarity with the victims of hate crimes, along with Mohammed Zubair and Pratik Sinha have been nominated in the Henrik Urdal's list of "worthy candidates"/"worthy recipients" for 2022 Nobel Peace Prize. A note on the official website of Peace Research Institute Oslo read, "Other worthy candidates for a prize focused on combating religious extremism and intolerance in India are Mohammed Zubair and Pratik Sinha, the co-founders of Alt News, a fact-checking site making significant contributions to debunking misinformation aimed at vilifying Muslims in India". Alt News was a signatory partner of the International Fact-Checking Network until April 2020.
BGR-34 is an Ayurvedic-derived product that is sold in India as an over-the-counter pill for the management of type 2 diabetes. It was developed in 2015 by two government-owned laboratories and launched commercially in 2016. It has been tested in only one, modest-sized, human trial. The drug has been heavily criticized, and without more clinical trials, its efficacy remains unproven. The manufacturers have refused to acknowledge the claims of inefficacy and other concerns.
Fake news in India refers to fostering and spread of false information in the country which is spread through word of mouth, traditional media and more recently through digital forms of communication such as edited videos, websites, blogs, memes, unverified advertisements and social media propagated rumours. Fake news spread through social media in the country has become a serious problem, with the potential of it resulting in mob violence, as was the case where at least 20 people were killed in 2018 as a result of misinformation circulated on social media.
False information, including intentional disinformation and conspiracy theories, about the scale of the COVID-19 pandemic and the origin, prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of the disease has been spread through social media, text messaging, and mass media. False information has been propagated by celebrities, politicians, and other prominent public figures. Many countries have passed laws against "fake news", and thousands of people have been arrested for spreading COVID-19 misinformation. The spread of COVID-19 misinformation by governments has also been significant.
Media coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic has varied by country, time period and media outlet. News media has simultaneously kept viewers informed about current events related to the pandemic, and contributed to misinformation or fake news.
The COVID-19 pandemic was covered in Wikipedia extensively, in real-time, and across multiple languages. This coverage extends to many detailed articles about various aspects of the topic itself, as well as many existing articles being amended to take account of the pandemic's effect on them. Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects' coverage of the pandemic – and how the volunteer editing community achieved that coverage – received widespread media attention for its comprehensiveness, reliability, and speed. Wikipedia experienced an increase in readership during the pandemic.
During the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic, many people began to spread false or un-confirmed data and information. This included politicians and other government officials from administrations in several countries. Misinformation about the virus includes its origin, how it spreads, and methods of preventing and curing the disease. Some downplayed the threat of the pandemic, and made false statements about preventative measures, death rates and testing within their own countries. Some have also spread COVID-19 vaccine misinformation. Changing policies also created confusion and contributed to the spread of misinformation. For example, the World Health Organization (WHO) originally discouraged use of face masks by the general public in early 2020, advising "If you are healthy, you only need to wear a mask if you are taking care of a person with suspected 2019-nCoV infection," although the WHO later changed their advice to encourage public wearing of face masks.
The Trusted News Initiative (TNI) is an international alliance of news media, social media and technology corporations which claim to be working to identify and combat purported disinformation about national elections, the COVID-19 pandemic and COVID-19 vaccines. TNI was founded by Jessica Cecil, a leadership figure at the BBC who also serves as the initiative's director.
