Indian telco that won Google and Facebook investments flatly denies it’s diversified into farming

Top India telco Reliance Jio Infocomm has taken the unusual step of vigorously denying it wants to diversify into farming. The company and its parent Reliance Industries yesterday published a statement denying they’ve bought any land, or intend to do so, or have any interest in the agriculture industry. Which may sound like a …

[iron]

Maybe it was fans of David Icke and Eamon Holmes vandalising their infrastructure?

[Pascal Monett]

"perhaps protestors might think twice"

Protesters thinking ? What next, politicians being honest ?

[MiguelC]

Never believe anything until it is officially denied?

[Raj]

It’s not farmers protesting. It’s the middlemen in two states of north India - mainly Punjab. The state has a very top heavy farm procurement system where middlemen outnumber farmers 10:1 , and a rigid fixed price procurement system generates a $2 billion cut to these middlemen every year.

The reforms end the monopoly of this system, allowing farmers to sell to whoever they desire. The protesters are making no headway. They decided to attack Jios cell towers because they heard some other arm of Reliance may be among the businesses buy from farmers. They also claimed the government is using 5G brain altering signals to force the farmers.