-The Telegraph New Delhi: A Right to Information applicant has drawn a blank while trying to access studies carried out on black money by autonomous research institutions under the finance ministry, making him wonder whether these documents have Been sucked into some black hole. Even the much-touted special investigation team on black money - set up by the Narendra Modi government soon after assuming office - has informed Venkatesh Nayak of the...

-CounterView.org A survey, coordinated by well-known academic Jean Drèze and researcher Nazar Khalid, has found an overwhelming popular opposition to the direct bank transfer (DBT) experiment in Jharkhand. Details of the survey: Glitches in the system have deprived people of nearly half of their food rations in the last four months. When they do get their rations, people spend 12 hours collecting them, on average. Most people are opposed to the new...

-The Hindu UDAY scheme: Tamil Nadu ranked lowest on performance power distribution companies Chennai:  UDAY review finds little progress made in smart metering. Tamil Nadu has Been ranked lowest in terms of State distribution companies’ quarterly performance as of December 2017, post joining the Centre’s Ujwal DISCOM Assurance Yojana (UDAY). The State had joined the scheme over a year ago. The scheme, covering 31 States and Union Territories, emphasises both financial turnaround and...

-The Indian Express The government should not succumb to pressures for removal of trait fee on a technology that has made India the world’s No. 1 cotton producer. During the last cotton season, there were reports of the pink bollworm (PBW) not being effectively controlled, especially in some 700 villages of Maharashtra where the infestation of this insect pest was stated to be high. However, at a review meeting conducted by the...

-Scroll.in The proposed law is almost identical to the United Progressive Alliance’s 2008 Pesticide Management Bill. Months after more than 40 people in three states were reported to have died in the second half of 2017 after being exposed to spurious pesticides, the Bharatiya Janata Party government has begun consultations on a new Pesticides Management Bill. The deaths in rural Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Telangana highlighted the fact that the Insecticides Act...