-TheWire.in The closure of a sugar mill has left farmers in Sitamarhi and Sheohar with no other option. Sitamarhi (Bihar): Farmer Gunanand Chaudhary of Hirolwa, Majorganj block in Bihar’s Sitamarhi had cultivated sugarcane on a 25-acre field. When the district’s only sugar mill, Riga Sugar Mill, announced that it won’t be opening this year, it came as a shock. Thankfully, Nepal is just four km from his village. Chaudhary has so far sold...

-The Indian Express Data for December 2020 released by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India showed that Punjab and Haryana were the only two states in which Reliance Jio lost subscribers during the month. India’s largest telecom operator Reliance Jio’s wireless subscriber base in the states of Punjab and Haryana recorded a slide in December 2020, in what is being seen as a potential outcome of the backlash its parent company Reliance...

-The Hindu The curious deference of the judiciary is part of the precariousness of the rights to freedom in India today Rioting in India’s capital city on a day reserved for the celebration of the Republic, was a new low in unravelling political concord. Within days of that trauma, points of entry into Delhi were barricaded with layers of concrete and steel, interwoven with vicious spools of concertina wire. Some locations had...

-TheWire.in From 1907’s struggle against British land revenue rates, to 202-21’s agitation against the new farm laws, at least five newspapers were launched to provide platforms for those fighting for their rights. Jalandhar: Nearly a century ago, when desperate farmers and labourers in Punjab agitated for their rights in British-ruled India, they found a platform in a newspaper called Kirti (Labourer). This newspaper not only led to the formation of the Kirti...

-TheWire.in Researchers have found that small and marginal farmers and Dalit landless labourers are worst affected by the region's agrarian distress. Sangrur/Patiala (Punjab): In the villages of Punjab, strike a conversation on farming  expenses with anyone, and they will say, “Karja tan hai hi (Of course, we have taken loans).” It’s these loans – from both institutional and non-institutional sources – that largely help the rural economy run in the state. But...