-ThePrint.in But the Guntur’s chillis’ got competition, 29 other districts in India chose chillis as their signature product too. Under the One District One Product Initiative, Guntur, Andhra Pradesh declared its famous chilli as its signature product, hoping to leverage resources to promote its produce globally – 29 other districts followed suit, each declaring chillies their unique, signature product and setting the stage for a nationwide chilli faceoff. This article, the first...

-The Telegraph The Congress national general secretary spoke on women’s empowerment in the state where seven-phase elections are being held Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Friday said distributing doles does not empower the poor, accusing some political parties of deliberately weakening the masses to ensure they are not in a position to question governments. Addressing a virtual rally meant for Uttar Pradesh, the Congress leader said: “A (cooking gas) cylinder doesn’t empower women. A...

-The Hindu In his book on Bihar, M.R. Sharan provides a closely observed, scholarly, and empathetic account of the struggle to make constitutional promises a reality in rural India  M.R. Sharan’s splendid book brought tears to my eyes on more than one occasion. The scene is a public meeting at “Narega Chowk” in Ratnauli village, Muzaffarpur district of Bihar. Activists of Bihar Manrega Watch (BMW) are helping resolve grievances. An old woman...

-TheQuint.com They are tortured so much that they forget their village name and limit their life to feeding cattle, clearing dung. “Eh ta meri bebe hai,” said Dalbir Singh, (she is my mother) looking at his distraught mother. He then identified his sister. One after the other, he called out the names of familiar faces among the villagers who came with his family. The small crowd cheered every time he joined names...

-Newsclick.in Maharashtra reopened schools on January 21 after waning of the third wave. It was expected that the mid-day meal scheme would be immediately resumed. But, students continue to be deprived of meals in schools as the scheme is still not functional. Since the graph of the third wave of COVID-19 started going down from January first week, the Maharashtra government allowed the opening of various institutions one by one. The last...