-The Telegraph Farmers from BJP-ruled states join hands with Punjab comrades to push back against the ruling party’s attempts to discredit the agitation against the Modi government’s farm laws Farmers from BJP-ruled Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh joined their comrades from Punjab at Delhi’s borders on Saturday, pushing back against the ruling party’s attempts to discredit the agitation against the Narendra Modi government’s farm laws by labelling it variously as “Khalistani”...

-Livemint.com The Centre will find that it pays to listen to those who have exit options but prefer to voice grievances When and why do people protest? Why do they protest over some issues but not others? These questions have come up since the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) was enacted and the possibility of an all-India National Register of Citizens (NRC). The persistence of protests against the CAA and NRC and its...

-Press release by Centre for Science and Environment, dated 17 December, 2019 Levels of salt, fat in junk foods way higher than proposed thresholds, says new CSE lab study Points out that industry is opposing notification of draft regulation because then we will know how bad their food is Expert group made recommendations six years ago, but the draft regulation that has emerged is severely diluted -- even this much-diluted draft...

-Hindustan Times The better performing states and UTs are Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Bihar, Jammu & Kashmir, Delhi and Chandigarh. Nearly 4% of the one lakh food and beverage samples analysed by the states and Union Territories last year were unsafe, about 16% were sub-standard and 9% were mislabelled, shows data released by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI). This is the first time that...

-The Hindu Business Line The apple season in Himachal Pradesh spells good earnings for workers from India and Nepal It is apple season in Himachal Pradesh — the time of the year when thousands of migrant labourers from Nepal, Bihar, Jharkhand, UP and Uttarakhand travel long distances to reach the apple belt of the State, hoping to earn hefty wages. From plucking, loading, grading, labelling and packaging apples, these workers fan out, from...