-The Indian Express The bullet train project, planned after discussions between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe, is being built with a Rs 88,000-crore soft loan from Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). Palghar: As politicians across party lines gathered on stage together in Palghar on Sunday calling for the ambitious Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train project to be cancelled, they repeatedly cited the word ‘vikas’, qualifying it with the...

-The Hindu The social activist whose new book on the RTI is just out, worries about the doublespeak in politics today, where rhetoric and substance never match The past couple of months have been hectic for Aruna Roy. The social activist and Magsaysay Award winner has been travelling across the country to promote her book, The RTI Story: Power to the People, which came out in April. After waiting more than a...

-The Indian Express The farmer organisations have been demanding minimum income guarantee scheme, implementation of the Swaminathan Commission report and waiver of farmers' debt. New Delhi: Demanding remunerative prices for their produce, implementation of the Swaminathan Commission recommendations and farm loan waivers among other things, farmers across the country continued their agitation Saturday as part of a 10-day long nationwide strike. In the wake of the dwindling fresh supplies of farm produce in...

-Financial Express loan waivers adversely affect marginal farmers due to a reduction of formal credit channels given to them On the eve of the Karnataka election, waivers of farm loans were one of the major election promises. Now, chief minister HD Kumaraswamy wants to fulfill his pre-poll promise and even threatened to resign if he cannot fulfill his promise. As has been seen time and time again, “farmers first” provides political mileage....

-The Tribune Will open sale counters in villages, near highways Kurukshetra: Farmer unions across the country have decided to suspend supply of vegetables and milk to wholesale markets from June 1 to 10. Growers from Haryana will join the ‘Kisan Avkash’ as well. Famers are demanding price fixation policies for agricultural and horticultural produce, loan waiver and implementation of Swaminathan Commission recommendations. Gurnam Singh Charuni, state president of the Bhartiya Kisan Union, said farmers...