-The Indian Express Lokpal amendments underline the resistance of political class to scrutiny The Lokpal Act passed more than two and a half years ago has not been operationalised till date. The reason? The law states that the panel to select the Lokpal must include the recognised leader of opposition. Since the BJP government has not recognised anyone as the LoP, an amendment was required to ensure that the leader of the...

-TheHansIndia.com Warangal: It’s seemingly clear that State Government’s campaign for discouraging cotton cultivation this year has paid off with majority of farmers opting for pulses, inversely helping the Centre’s roadmap to achieve pulses self-sufficiency by increasing production in the next four years. Farmers, who earlier appeared averse to take up the cultivation of pulses, have finally heeded to the government’s call. It may be mentioned here that India is the largest producer,...

-CivilSocietyOnline.com New Delhi: The 100-day Accountability Yatra across Rajasthan led by the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS) has had an impact. The State Government has issued orders to re-verify all one million pensions that had been stopped, including the 688,875 pensions that had been cancelled. From December 2015 to March this year the yatra had travelled to 33 districts in Rajasthan to assess how government schemes were functioning, find out people’s grievances...

-The Hindu While farmers in parts of Punjab have started uprooting cotton crop fearing whitefly pest attack, officials from the State Government and the Centre are touring the cotton-belt to monitor the situation. The pest attack, which caused extensive damage to Bt cotton crop last year in Punjab and neighbouring Haryana, had been reported this year as well in a few villages of Malwa region, mainly Fazilka district of Punjab. Farmers are worried...

-The Hindu This is hardly a rice ready for cultivation by farmers — it has not even entered the stage of biosafety evaluation by government regulatory institutions. Recently 110 Nobel Laureates issued a strongly worded plea to Greenpeace to “abandon their campaign against [genetically modified organisms] in general and Golden Rice in particular.” This is not the first time notable scientists have waded into the controversy surrounding genetically modified (GM) crops. What...