-The Hindu Notes several instances of govt pressure on media outlets Washington DC: In its 2020 Human Rights Report, the U.S. State Department said the harassment and detention of journalists critical of the (Indian) government in their reporting and on social media, has continued, although the government generally respected the freedom of expression. It also said government’s requests for user data from Internet companies had increased “dramatically.” The report, which is submitted each...

-The Hindu Data stored digitally in devices that are seized can be tampered with or distorted, says petition by five teachers The Supreme Court has asked the government to respond to a plea by five teachers to protect “academic freedom” from raids and seizures of police and investigative agencies. The past few years have seen raids on and seizures of electronic evidence from academicians, researchers, Lawyers and activists. Now, a group of educationists have...

-Newsclick.in Vedanta has halted operations and appealed to the Supreme Court against an NGT order which held an environmental clearance as necessary for the purpose. New Delhi: Did the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in Goa help Vedanta jump the Law in order to sell iron ore overseas even as a state-wide ban continues to be imposed on its mining by an order of the Supreme Court of India? After purchasing 1.44 million...

-The Tribune ‘High indebtedness, inability to repay loan led to extreme step’ Over 7,300 farm labourers in Punjab have died by suicide between 2000 and 2018. As many as 5,765 of these (79 per cent of total suicides by farm labourers) were because of high indebtedness and inability to repay the loan. An average agricultural labour family in the state has a debt of Rs 76,017 while the agricultural labourer suicide victim family...

-Frontline.in The argument that the Indian farmer is overburdened by “negative support” has become contentious in the context of the recent farm Laws. In reality, this does not hold up to scrutiny. In the heat of the ongoing protests against the new farm Laws, some views have emerged that the state has saddled the Indian farmer with excessive taxes. In support of this contention, methodology and data from the Organisation for Economic...