Blame stubborn procurement policy as the root of all evil. With the government sitting on heaps of foodgrain and with an acute shortage of quality storage facilities, analysts, some within the government, suggest exporting foodgrain and reviewing procurement policy. The suggestion is gaining ground among advisors and experts, given the current global situation, where wheat prices are on the rise on fears of subdued production in drought-hit countries like Russia, Uzbekistan and...

Media persons from all over the country have a great opportunity to witness the dance of democracy in Jaipur beginning Gandhi Jayanti. A peaceful ‘dharna’ organized by grassroots organizations like the MKSS and RTI Manch, among others, is already attracting some of India’s top writers, editors, development thinkers and civil society activists, besides thousands of common people from all across Rajasthan. The movement will continue indefinitely from October 2 onwards...

Court ordered Haryana govt to return panchayat land sold to DLF in Gurgaon The judgment by the Punjab and Haryana High Court slamming the Haryana government for “acting with bias and malice to show favour to M/s DLF” and ordering it to return to villagers the19 acres of prime land in Nathupur village acquired on a ‘false pretext’ has cheered up the man who led this legal battle. Petitioner Meer Singh,...

Thousands of farmers from Saurashtra gathered here on Friday to protest against the Centre’s cotton export policy. The government has fixed a cap of 55 lakh bales for export in 2010-11, even as a record yield of cotton is expected this year. During the convention organised Maha Gujarat Agri Cotton Produce Company (MGACPC) at Shahshri Maidan, the farmers demanded that the export limit should be increased to one crore bales. They...

  The sea change that India’s national scheme for rural employment guarantee has accomplished is hard to fathom, its vastness touching the lives or more than 100 million people. The National Rural Employment Guarantee Act of 2005 (NREGA, subsequently renamed after Mahatma Gandhi, or MGNREGA) was a landmark in Indian legislation. Under the act, as of April 2008, for the first time in India’s history, all rural citizens have a legal right...