-News18.com Acclaimed journalist and Founder-Editor of the People’s Archive of Rural India, P Sainath attributes the existential crisis confronting India’s agrarian society to macro-economic policies set in motion 25 years ago. Talking to Anuradha SenGupta, Sainath makes a case for state intervention in agriculture and says the Modi government, with its shifting positions and policies like demonetisation has only aggravated the assault on agrarian livelihoods. Dismissing the buzz about imminent new initiatives...

-The Hindu The former Chief Election Commissioner on the EVM controversy, why the Supreme Court’s verdict on criminals in politics is a missed opportunity, and electoral bonds The debate on the reliability of electronic voting machines (EVMs) refuses to settle, with political parties continuing to voice their concerns about malfunctioning machines. Former Chief Election Commissioner S.Y. Quraishi explains how EVMs work, why he is disappointed with the Supreme Court for refusing to...

-The Indian Express As per the data available with nodal officer Dinesh Singla, who is Executive Engineer, PPCB, a total of 2589 fire incidents have been reported in Punjab this paddy season till October 21 in which Amritsar tops with 535 cases, followed by Tarn Taran with 494 cases. Ludhiana: WITH JUST one-fourth of the total estimated paddy arrival in mandis till now, a total of 2589 fire incidents have been reported...

-ThePrint.in India’s rights watchdog NHRC — labelled ‘toothless tiger’ — is swamped with cases but has little resources to address them. This, despite an ‘A’ rating from UN body. New Delhi: On paper, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), which turned 25 last week, is a success story. In February, the Global Alliance of National Human Rights Institutions (GANHRI), a UN body based in Geneva, re-accredited India’s apex rights watchdog with the ‘A’...

-Press release by Right to Food Campaign dated 28th September, 2018 17 lakh elderly, widows and differently-abled persons in Jharkhand who qualify for social security pensions, do not receive their entitlement. One important reason is that pension coverage in Jharkhand is not universal. Even those who do receive pensions face chronic selection errors and administrative glitches. In 2016-17, 3 lakh pensioners were deleted as “fake”, though many genuine persons, whose pension...