-The Hindu Business Line ‘Development not at the cost of food security’ After several farmers’ organisations, it is now the turn of agricultural scientists, representing various research institutions, to criticise the Land Acquisition Bill. On Monday, senior agricultural scientists told the joint Parliamentary panel, looking into the amendments to the 2013 legislation, that reducing cultivable land can pose a serious threat to the food security of the country. Representatives, including Vice-Chancellors of the Indian...
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Did govt withhold Gujarat immunisation data to avoid embarrassment to PM Modi?
-FirstPost.com The last time a comprehensive study was published on nutrition or health in India, it was back in 2007. Another study was done in 2013 and 2014 by Unicef, the UN agency for children, in collaboration with the Indian government. But the results of the study, which were to be published in October 2014, never saw light of day. At least, not in their entirety. A limited set of data on...
More »Land bill panel’s term extended to July 28 to submit the report -CL Manoj
-The Economic Times NEW DELHI: The government's plan to get the joint house panel to process the contentious land acquisition bill and submit its report on the opening day of monsoon session of Parliament on July 21 faces a fresh hurdle. Bowing to demands from the Opposition members, the panel's term was on Monday extended by a week to July 28. This MEAns the government will now have a window of just...
More »NGOs’ foreign funds and a trust deficit -Trilochan Sastry
-The Hindu There is no organised conspiracy against NGOs. It is in the nature of power to exercise greater control, and exempt itself from accountability. The recent changes in the rules governing foreign funding of NGOs under the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) have been widely discussed. The last word on it will perhaps never be written. The UPA government initiated this and we see some concrete changes now. Sifting through the...
More »Dignified alternative -Harsh Mander
-The Hindu Far from being ‘useless’, the MNREGA helps the impoverished and resilient poor earn a decent living. Famously on the floor of Parliament, Prime Minister Modi dismissed the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA) as a ‘living monument’ of the previous governments’ failures, condemning millions of impoverished people to survive by ‘digging ditches’. This spring near Bhim in Rajasthan, I had the rare experience of labouring on an MGNREGA site....
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