-The Indian Express Agriculture’s contribution to poverty reduction is five times more than that of metropolitan centres Speaking at the third BRICS Urbanisation Forum in Visakhapatnam on September 14, Deputy Chairman of the Niti Ayog, Arvind Panagariya, announced that “Without cities we can’t grow rapidly”. He added, “urbanisation plays an important role in poverty alleviation”. Both claims are exaggerated and somewhat misleading. A recent report prepared for the UN points out that, over...

-Hindustan Times Chandigarh: ON FARM FRONT Food security of the nation continues to be in the hands of Punjab that contributes the maximum share of wheat to the central pool but its farmers need reforms, not sops, to find a way out of the debt trap. Haryana started at a disadvantage but is gaining ground though the state govt’s role leaves much to be desired. Punjab awaits another revolution The tumultuous trifurcation of Punjab...

-The New Indian Express NEW DELHI: Faced with stiff opposition from the states, civil society groups and even the RSS on GM food crops, the Central government is reaching out to the state governments to bring them on board for field trials. Acting on the directives of the PMO, the environment ministry on October 21 organised a meeting which was attended by representatives from different states. More such meetings are expected to...

-The Hindu  The Centre’s coercive method has worked. Tamil Nadu and Kerala, the two States that were holding out against pressure from New Delhi to implement the National Food security Act (NFSA), have also fallen in line. By threatening to raise the price at which it was allocating foodgrains if they did not implement the law, the Centre has managed to get these two States to agree to the implementation of the Act...

-The Hindu   “State government will combine the Act’s essential provisions with some of its traditional practices”   Chennai: The Tamil Nadu government had faced Hobson’s choice before it decided to implement the National Food security Act (NFSA). A few weeks ago, the government was administered a shock when it got a letter from the Union Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, stating that with effect from November, the State would no...