-The Hindustan Times The rural development ministry would be asking the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) to relax norms to acquire land for projects by scrapping mandatory consent provision for public private partnership (PPP) projects and reducing it to 50% from the existing 80% for private acquisition. The slew of changes in the land acquisition law 2013 for Prime Minister Narendra Modi's approval means that consent of half of the affected families would...
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Need to focus on minimum living incomes for farmers -Kavitha Kuruganti
-Deccan Herald The National Crime Records Bureau's data for 2013 is out, and farm suicides are pegged at 11,772 -- not very different from the earlier years.Many activists point out how these figures are in fact under-reported. In a country where the cultivators' numbers are plummeting drastically as the Census 2011 data shows, this unabated trend of farm suicides is something that any government should take note of. The central aspect to this...
More »India less committed to reducing hunger than Nepal or Bangladesh: HANCI report -Jitendra
-Down to Earth India ranked 19th among 45 developing countries assessed by UK-based organisation India has made quite some progress in countering hunger and under-nutrition in the past two years but Nepal and Bangladesh have done better and have shown serious commitment through political will, says the Hunger and Nutrition Commitment Index (HANCI) report, 2013. The annual HANCI report, prepared by non-profit Institute of Development Studies and International Food Policy Research Institute funded...
More »Have India's farm suicides really declined? -P Sainath
-BBC Are fewer farmers killing themselves in India today? Yes, according to the latest data from the country's National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB). A total of 11,744 farmers ended their lives in India in 2013, down from 13,754 farmers in 2012. Most farm suicides have been linked to debt, a sharp rise in input costs, serious water crises, price volatility and crop failure due to pest attacks and disease. A total of 296,438 farmers...
More »Corporate karza maafi at Rs. 36.5 trillion -P Sainath
-PSainath.org The revenues foregone in 2013-14 could fund the rural jobs scheme for three decades or the PDS for four and a half years. It was business as usual in 2013-14. Business with a capital B. This year's budget document says we gave away another Rs. 5.32 lakh crores to the corporate needy and the under-nourished rich in that year. Well, it says Rs. 5.72 lakh crores but I'm...
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