Five must-read stories—February 2

Till we end BJP rule in country, SP and Congress will be together: Akhilesh

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav said Wednesday the Samajwadi Party’s alliance with the Congress will continue until they end the BJP’s rule in the country, reports The Indian Express.

SC wants firewall to check cyber crime

The Supreme Court on Wednesday asked global search engines Google, Microsoft, Yahoo and social media platforms Facebook and WhatsApp to take measures to prevent uploading of any offensive material such as rape or gangrape videos on social media, reports The Tribune.

With factories being shut, jobs scarce in Punjab’s Doaba

In 2014, newspaper reports said 18,770 factories have shut down since the Akali government came to power. Industrialists and businessmen lay the blame of the mass exodus by factories squarely on the Akali Dal-BJP government, and more so on the CM’s son Sukhbir Singh Badal, the Deputy CM of Punjab. A Quint report.

Merged Budget: Railways taken by surprise over listing of its 3 PSUs

In the first merger of the Rail Budget with the General Budget on Wednesday, the Railways Ministry was reportedly caught unawares by the government’s announcement that three of its public sector units would be listed in the stock market, reports The Indian Express.

'Bad hombres': reports claim Trump threatened to send troops to Mexico

Donald Trump threatened to send troops south of the border to take care of “bad hombres” while on the telephone with his Mexican counterpart, according to a transcript cited by the Associated Press, reports The Guardian.