-TheWire.in Unless consumer preferences shift to climate resistant crops, goals associated with the policy won’t materialize. On March 14, the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) uploaded a draft of the National Forest Policy 2018, three decades years after the last such policy. The draft appears to be an attempt to shift the approach towards forestry in India – specifically, from a local community- and ecology-centric approach emphasised in the...

-Hindustan Times Non-farm jobs was positive despite negative jobs growth in 2014-15 and 2015-16 The KLEM database released by RBI on 27 March, 2018 gives employment statistics for the Indian economy till 2015-16. It shows that total employment shrank by 0.2% and 0.1% in India in 2014-15 and 2015-16. These statistics raise disturbing questions. India’s Gross Value Added (GVA) growth increased continuously between 2012-13 and 2015-16. Why did employment growth go into negative...

-The Indian Express Schemes to ensure that farmers get fair returns will come a croppper unless trade and tariffs are synced with minimum support prices. With farm prices of several commodities falling way below their minimum support prices (MSPs) in 2016-17 and 2017-18, farmers have been under increasing stress. The Centre and several state governments are searching for ways and means to support farmers. In his recent address (Mann ki Baat), the...

-The Hindu Only 44% of households in Bihar, U.P. use toilets 100% of the time: survey Kerala and Mizoram top the list of States, with 100% of households which do not practise open defecation, while Uttar Pradesh and Bihar are at the bottom of the rankings, with less than 44% of such households, The Hindu’s analysis of the raw data generated by a government-commissioned survey finds. Sixty eight per cent of rural households...

-PTI Recently, the breed virtually became a bone of contention between Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh with both the States staking claim over its nativity. Bhopal: The Madhya Pradesh government has come up with a mobile application to market rare chicken breed — the “Kadaknath” — whose black meat is in high demand for its nutritious content and purported medicinal properties. The “MP Kadaknath” mobile app aims to connect poultries that sale the breed...