-The Hindu Business Line Hounded for her documentary on the horrors of manual scavenging, filmmaker Divya Bharathi holds up a mirror to social indifference A conspiracy of silence — that’s how filmmaker Divya Bharathi describes the uneasy quiet that shrouds the death of men and children in sewage tanks. Earlier this month, when six men choked to death in Delhi, the reaction was on expected lines — nothing beyond knee-jerk moves, she...

-Down to Earth Can pre-poll sops like giving smart phones with internet connectivity to farmers increase farm income? Last week, thousands of farmers and agricultural workers poured into the National Capital to attract and focus the attention of the Central government to their demands. The Mazdoor Kisan Sangharsh Rally, organised by farmers’ organization, All India Kisan Sabha, and the All India Agriculture Workers Union, broke all records as far as Crowd numbers...

-Newsclick.in It is bizarre that the recent GDP numbers are being celebrated even as there are no jobs, workers wages are frozen and farmers are demanding better prices. There is much celebration in government circles and, of course, in the mainstream media, that in the first quarter of 2018-19 (April to June 2018), the GDP growth rate picked up to touch 8.2% compared with the same quarter last year (April to June...

-The Hindu Business Line A campaign and fundraiser are trying to persuade farmers in Haryana and Punjab to opt for technology instead of using the polluting method of crop stubble burning in the sowing season this winter October-November are the cruellest months for people living in the National Capital Region. A heavy smog slowly drifts in and hangs in through the winter, sending particulate matter (PM) levels soaring to a hazardous degree....

-The Times of India CHENNAI: A 23-members fact-finding team investigating the Tuticorin violence on May 22 and 23, where several people were killed in police firing, has submitted a report calling it a “total breakdown of civilian authority.” Putting the death toll at 15 as opposed to the earlier 13, the 260-page report called it “unjustified and unwanted” murders. “The Tuticorin police continue the terror regime and people are not allowed to...