-IndiaSpend.com It's a bit of a mystery question. Reason is most data tells you that more than half of India's population lives on or off agriculture. But does it really? The World Trade Organization General Council which met on July 24-25 failed to arrive at a consensus on the Doha Round talks thanks to India's position on agriculture subsidies. Needless to add, this has once again put the spotlight on...

-The Business Standard Do not roll back crucial food procurement reform Food Minister Ram Vilas Paswan, in an interview to this newspaper, has said that his ministry has not come to any "firm conclusion" on his directive to states about procurement. The Centre had told states to stop offering a bonus on top of the Centre's minimum support prices (MSPs) for wheat and rice, and to limit their procurement to match the...

As the country celebrates 68th anniversary of her independence this year, recent data from the Census 2011 reveals that the population of homeless declined by 8.8% between 2001 and 2011 to reach 17.7 lakhs. This means that 4.5 lakh households (of average household size 3.9) still do not have any shelter to sleep safely. Although the percentage share of homeless in total population is miniscule (i.e. 0.15%), in absolute numbers...

-The Telegraph In her recent book, Green Wars, the environmental journalist Bahar Dutt, writes: "The editor of a leading media house, everytime I pitched a green story, would invariably complain: ‘Environmentalism is stalling growth; all I am interested in is double-digit growth for this country.'" The idea that environmental protection and economic progress are at odds is widely held among India's elite. It is shared by newspaper editors, economists, businessmen, and, not...

-Live Mint The return on cows and buffaloes, like that of many stocks traded on Wall Street, is positive in some years and negative in others This is one piece of news that would please Dinanath Batra and his cow-loving fans: Recent research by a team of economists show that rural Indians investing in cows and buffaloes may be acting quite rationally, overturning earlier research by another set of economists which showed...