-Livemint.com The current National Forest Policy dates back to 1988 before India’s economic liberalization started and now the government wants a revision, as it perceives a decline in corporate investments into the forest sector New Delhi: Imagine two scenarios. One is a natural forest, nature’s complex multi-layered ecosystem and a landscaped home to 80% of all terrestrial biodiversity where thousands of species of plants, animals and microorganisms interact and thrive. The second...

-The Indian Express Únion Budget 2018: Budget addresses the crises in agriculture. The devil is in the allocations All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way”. In Anna Karenina, only if a person is satisfied on all counts will she be happy. The allocations in the budget cover every sector, with umpteen implications, and no person’s expectations can be fulfilled on all counts. While every...

-Scroll.in Many crucial schemes have been allocated less than last time and what the finance minister announced in Parliament. Arun Jaitley invoked Swami Vivekananda to drive home the point that the Budget for 2018-’19, which he presented on Thursday, was aimed at helping rural India and farmers. “Let her arise – out of the peasants’ cottage, grasping the plough; out of the huts of the fisherman. Let her spring from the...

-The Indian Express Instead of cancelling hospital licences, bring in patient centric laws, institutional capacity to enforce them. The grievous error in declaring a live baby dead by the capital’s Max hospital, following closely on the heels of Fortis hospital charging exorbitant amounts for the treatment of a seven-year-old child diagnosed with dengue, seem to have pushed things to a tipping point. The government responded by cancelling the licence of Max — a...

-The Times of India blog (Voices) Riding on the roads of rural Punjab, a grim spectre unfolds. It is early November and there is fire and smoke all around for the endless land that stretches ahead. It is paddy stubble burning time in the state. This phenomenon is not exceptional to the state of Punjab in India but is also prevalent in Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh. Recently, there has been much...