No other government has brought such a black law against farmers: Ajit Singh  More farmers join the dharna on Parliament Street They will march in a procession on Thursday and hold a rally at Jantar Mantar In a formidable show of strength, farmers belonging to various organisations have begun to pour into the Capital to lodge their protest on the opening day of the winter session of Parliament here on...

The three-day World Summit on Food Security (WSFS) that opened in Rome, Italy on 16 November, 2009 has ended with serious differences among participants. Among those expressing dissatisfaction with the final declaration was no less a person than Jacques Diouf, the head of UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO). Diouf criticised the declaration for not including exact targets to reduce hunger. There is no mention of a deadline for the...

If a country’s national income is rising, someone in the country must be getting richer. Unless income distribution is changing, all income classes must get richer at about the same pace. If a constant standard of living is defined to classify everyone below it as poor, then as incomes rise, the proportion of the poor so defined must shrink, eventually to zero. If income grows 5 per cent a year...

To help farmers reeling under drought conditions  AHMEDABAD: Cooperative milk dairies in Gujarat have submitted a joint memorandum to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, requesting him to take immediate steps to discourage import of skimmed milk powder and butter oil and prevent export of ingredients used for manufacturing cattle feed. Among measures they have suggested to achieve the same, are restoration of customs duty on import of milk powder to the...

Southern Kerala state is known for the lush expanses of cardamom, pepper, tea and rubber that grow on its misty hills, and the bountiful catches of fish on a coastline punctuated by lagoons and backwaters. But a cloud in the form of a a free trade deal with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) bloc hovers over this picture of plenty. With the Indo-ASEAN Free Trade Agreement (FTA) now...