-Outlook India A schoolteacher shot right through the eye, businessmen brothers disappeared, a jewellery shop looted of crores, even politicians murdered…Nitish is fast losing his USP. Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar may have earned compliments for his administration’s zero-tolerance policy towards crime in his previous three terms—closing the insulting Jungle Raj repeat-phrase that defined the state before his rule. But his latest tenure has thrown up a big challenge on the law...

-TheWire.in Only a serious overhaul can remedy the fundamental shortcomings in our constitution. It is now clear that India, the world’s largest democracy, is being run by an oligarchy, a form of government where the real power lies with just a few individuals and families. This became tragically evident from the recent saga of India’s agricultural reforms. Three farm laws were enacted by a coterie in the Centre without even recognising that...

-The Telegraph A large segment of the protesters who travelled are Adivasis fighting for their land titles under the Forest Rights Act, 2006 The tent seemed more spacious and the winter didn’t bite as much. After spending four days on the road in a cramped tempo with 14 others, Chhagan Chaudhari, 60, extended his legs and wrapped himself with a thick blanket as he prepared to sleep on December 25 night in...

-Newsclick.in A country that ranks 94 among 107 countries in the Global Hunger Index can’t be said to be self-sufficient in foodgrains. The surplus stocks are due to shortage of purchasing power in peoples’ hands. The Indian intelligentsia has an incredible propensity to swallow the self-serving arguments of metropolitan capitalism that are typically supposed to constitute ‘economic wisdom’. And nowhere is this more evident than in the case of India’s food economy. There...

-GaonConnection.com In the wake of the employment crisis caused by COVID-19, the Centre released Rs 1,000 billion under MGNREGA. 71% of this has already been spent, but of the 90 million active job cards, only about 1.9 million were able to complete 100 days of employment by November 2020. MGNREGA (Mahatma Gandhi Employment Guarantee Act), the world’s largest employment guarantee scheme, has so far failed to provide work to 9.7 million households...