-The Economic Times When the country was growing at more than 8 per cent for about a decade, services and manufacturing were the darlings of policy-makers, investors and talking heads. Agriculture, a segment that employs nearly half the hundred crore population of the country, was hardly mentioned even in passing. This year, thanks to a poor monsoon, suddenly the farmers are the centre of India's growth story, or the lack of...

-Bloomberg It wasn't the Gettsyburg Address -- unless it's poker faces we're comparing. Future historians aren't going to be parsing Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's speech for hidden meanings, and rhetoricians won't be delighting in the majesty of its style and the compression of its effects. It inflamed no passions, as did Mitt Romney's words about the "47 percent," and asserted no big idea or thesis, unless there was one contained in the...

-PTI Ahead of a meeting of Group of Ministers, Rural Development Ministry sought to allay apprehensions of industries and infrastructure sectors over the controversial land acquisition bill, contending that the amendments in the legislation are investor-friendly. In a note circulated to the members of the Group of Ministers (GoM) headed by Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar, the Ministry highlighted that the requirement of consent of all for acquiring land has been diluted and...

-The Telegraph The rural development ministry has claimed that an amended version of the land acquisition bill has taken into account concerns of industry though several cabinet ministers had blocked it last month fearing it would stall industrialisation. In a note last week to all members of a Group of Ministers (GoM) on the bill, the ministry said the revised draft had relaxed key provisions, including consent norms for acquisition of land...

-Al Jazeera  Organic farming is the "only way to produce food" without harming the planet and people's health. Reports trying to create doubts about organic Agriculture are suddenly flooding the media. There are two reasons for this. Firstly, people are fed up of the corporate assault of toxics and GMOs. Secondly, people are turning to organic Agriculture and organic food as a way to end the toxic war against the earth and...