A newsletter from The Wire | Founded by MK Venu, Pratik Kanjilal, Sidharth Bhatia, Siddharth Varadarajan, Sushant Singh, Seema Chishti, and Tanweer Alam | Contributing writers: Kalrav Joshi, Anirudh SK
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Snapshot of the day
October 26, 2026
Sidharth Bhatia, Kalrav Joshi, Anirudh S.K.
India’s press freedom has been in steady retreat under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, with the country ranked 157th out of 180 in the 2026 World Press Freedom Index. Now even the big legacy media houses are pushing back. Twenty-one publishers, including Mukesh Ambani owned Network18, Gautam Adani’s NDTV, the Indian Express and Times Internet, have taken the Modi government’s controversial privacy law to the Supreme Court, warning it could expose journalists’ sources and reduce investigative journalism to “a benign and neutered recorder of events.” The law’s reach may be catching up with even those often being the government’s lapdogs. The Digital News Publishers Association calls its provisions “pre-censorship which is anathema to any democracy worth its name,” in its 698-page filing. The matter comes up tomorrow.
Meanwhile, from cartoonist Manjul to Satish Acharya, who ‘built an audience online - now their posts are being restricted,’ by the Modi-Meta nexus, notes BBC.
In other news of falling and failing, the rupee weakened for a third straight session as importers stepped up dollar purchases and foreign outflows mounted. After opening little changed against the US dollar, it slipped 0.3% to close at Rs 95.1850, taking its losses over three sessions to about 0.8%. Foreign portfolio investors, meanwhile, have pulled out Rs 3.08 lakh crore from Indian markets in 2026, according to the Times of India – nearly double the Rs 1.66 lakh crore withdrawn in all of 2025. While the international situation, especially higher crude prices as the war in West Asia continues, sparked outflows, domestic indicators such as high inflation are contributing to the aggressive and sustained exit of foreign capital.
The Modi government is doubling down on its ethanol push despite mounting concerns over fuel efficiency, consumer costs, food security and the depletion of groundwater. The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has now amended vehicle rules to permit E85 and near-pure E100 ethanol in designated flex-fuel vehicles. The latest rule changes deepen the ethanol push even as the government is yet to adequately account for the programme’s hidden economic and environmental costs – or explain why consumers should bear the burden while its claimed benefits are celebrated.
The Supreme Court has issued notice to the Election Commission of India (ECI) on a petition challenging the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Maharashtra, but declined to grant interim relief. It orally assured voters whose names were deleted that they would not face “prosecution” for reapplying through Form 6 — which is intended for fresh electors — while seeking the ECI’s response to concerns over the process. A bench headed by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant said it would hear the poll body before deciding whether to extend the deadline for claims and objections or restrain the ECI from publishing the final voter list.
Meanwhile, the use of Form 7 to delete voters from electoral rolls has again
