Bihar Caste Survey Maps Poverty Across Communities, UP Readies for Destitute Cow Census; Bond of Distrust: the Open Market Sale of India’s Democracy

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A newsletter from The Wire | Founded by MK Venu, Seema Chishti, Siddharth Varadarajan, Sushant Singh, Sidharth Bhatia and Tanweer Alam | Contributing writer: Kalrav Joshi, with additional inputs by Anirudh SK | Editor: Pratik Kanjilal

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Snapshot of the day

November 8, 2023

Pratik Kanjilal

Indian Express reports that in five years, 16 ministries gave contracts worth Rs 500 crore to the Big Five consultants, often for absurd purposes like evaluating nominations for e-governance awards. In October, in a ‘Top Priority’ letter, the special secretary in the Department of Expenditure in the Ministry of Finance sought details on the hiring of consultants, and observed that they are handsomely compensated, reports Shyamlal Yadav. 

With a clear majority, the Aligarh municipality has voted to rename the city