A two-cup pot of Darjeeling tea costs Rs 500 at cafes in Kurseong and elsewhere. An eight-hour-long grinding shift at tea gardens earns the workers Rs 230 as daily wage.
Revenue loss from export crops like tea played a big part in Sri Lanka's rapid economic decline. For descendants of Tamil-bonded labourers, life is more difficult now.
Adding up to 17% of Assam’s population and 35% of its electorate, the tea tribes will be critical to the outcomes in about 40 out of 47 constituencies that go to vote Saturday.
There are 30-lakh tea garden workers in Assam, but they continue to be on the margins even though Assam’s Republic Day tableau called them the state’s ‘backbone’.
‘Mother kept pouring water in our eyes whenever the burning became unbearable. She pushed our bodies deep into the blanket, making sure not a single part was exposed,’ my father said.
December oil imports from Russia may drop nearly 50%, but Indian buyers already shifting to non-designated Russian entities and opaque trading channels to keep Russian oil flowing.
The helicopters produced by Lockheed Martin are known as ‘submarine hunters’. India ordered 24 of these aircraft in 2020 to replace the Sea King helicopters. 15 have been delivered till date.
The India-South Africa series-defining fact is the catastrophic decline of Indian red ball cricket where a visiting team can mock us with the 'grovel' word.
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