In April, India rolled out a Central Monitoring System for all phone and Internet communications, which rights groups fear could lead to abuse in the absence of adequate oversight or safeguards for the right to privacy, the report said.
The courage and persistence of victims' families and human rights activists did result in court interventions and investigations in several cases of extrajudicial killings in which the security forces had falsely claimed that the deaths occurred during armed exchanges.
In the run-up to the 2014 parliamentary elections, there was an increase in communal clashes between Hindus and Muslims, Human Rights Watch said.
"There is risk of additional violence as political interest groups seek to exploit tensions between the two communities."
Maoist insurgents in central and eastern India continued to attack civilians and security forces while villagers were at risk of arbitrary arrests and torture by state forces.
Maoists continued to attack schools and government security forces occupied school buildings for operations in violation of court orders.
Internationally, India engaged in efforts to promote human rights in Sri Lanka, Afghanistan and Myanmar but did little to address the crises outside of South Asia, such as in Syria, the report said.
