Despite an outcry from the garment exporters , the government is keen on allowing excess cotton to be exported from the country before the US cotton hits the international market in January and brings prices down. The inter-ministerial committee on cotton will meet end of the month to look at fresh production figures and will take a call on whether the present export cap of 55 lakh should be lifted. “We just...

The Ekta Gramin Praja Vichar Manch, who are fighting for their land which the state government has proposed to acquire for NH-8 expansion in Vadodara district, has decided to intensify their protest after the concerned departments reportedly ignored their woes. Sources said about 150 farmers from villages like Bil, Ranoli, Padamla, Vemali, Dumaad, Sama fear to lose their fertile land if the government plans to move forward with their plan to...

In the first week of September, two things happened in western Uttar Pradesh. The first is that a township that was supposed to be constructed in Aligarh district as part of the Yamuna Expressway project was scrapped. The second was that the UP government announced a revised compensation scheme for the acquisition of land. And now, more than two months later, that bears fruit: the township is back on, and...

In 25 years, the Narmada Bachao Andolan has introduced an alternative development discourse in India. ON the full moon night in October, hundreds of people from all over India gathered at Bhilgaon, one of the many tribal villages in Nandurbar district of Maharashtra, in the foothills of the Satpura mountain range and on the banks of the river Narmada. The place resounded with jingles, revolutionary folk songs and strains of...

The cotton growers of Vidarbha, who are suffering immensely due to the prevailing agrarian crisis, staged candlelight protests ahead of US President Barack Obama's India visit on Friday. The protests, held under the banner of the Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti — a pressure group which has been documenting distressed farmers' suicides — sought to draw his attention to the plight of the region's agriculture sector caused by 'American policies'. The main event...