-The Indian Express Draft law says water shall not be denied to anyone over inability to pay, being proposed as model legislation for states. A proposed new law on water promises to give every person the right to a minimum amount of “safe water”, while making the state “obliged” to “protect” and conserve water. The draft National Water Framework Bill says every person would be entitled to “water for life” that shall...

-Livemint.com Nominal hikes in crop support prices means that farmers are bearing the burden of government policy to keep food inflation in check New Delhi: The Narendra Modi led government has set a target to double farm incomes by 2022, but in the past three years it announced only nominal hikes for support prices of rice and wheat. What’s more: the raises were lower than the prevailing retail inflation, meaning declining...

-TheWire.in As a society, we should be ashamed that year after year, farmers beg for a decent livelihood and are forced to take their lives. Farming is widely recognised as a high risk venture and our farmers have had to grapple with adverse and unpredictable climatic conditions (drought, hailstorms, unseasonal rains, cyclones), unforeseen loss of crop (wild animals, technological failures, lack of irrigation) and a near complete absence of a supportive eco-system...

-The Hindu Business Line Citing Swaminathan panel formula, farmers ‘reject’ MSP Hyderabad: Farmers associations and agri-economists are angry over the “meagre” hike in the minimum support price (MSP) for paddy, pulses and other crops.     The government on Wednesday announced a hike in the MSP of Rs. 60 a quintal for paddy and Rs. 425 for pulses, far below the farmers’ expectations. Swaminathan panel formula The hike in the MSP falls well short of the...

-CivilSocietyOnline.com For the past decade state governments have launched a series of Internet-based initiatives to deliver services more efficiently. Technology has been seen as the best way of bypassing red tape and corruption in the system to reach the poor directly with benefits. Beneficiaries are identified through biometrics and a series of tech solutions like smart cards, micro ATMs and so on. The result of these efforts is that India is...