-Economic and Political Weekly While the Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers' Rights Act 2001 is a progressive piece of legislation that recognises farmers' rights to seed, it demands payment of an annual maintenance fee by the farmers to protect the varieties which they have been cultivating and conserving for years, only because these varieties have been brought under legal protection through national legislation. Parameswaran Prajeesh (prajeesh@mssrf.res.in) is a researcher with the...
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When The Haze Takes Over -Pavithra S Rangan
-Outlook The NDA seems bent on subverting the RTI Act. Is the slow dismembering of the CIC part of the plan? We Have No Recall For the first time since its inception, CIC's functions expropriated by the govt A search committee set up to appoint a new CIC chief says meeting details cannot be revealed; "highly confidential" RTI appeals pertaining to prime depts...
More »Bursting the myths on Indian agriculture -Rakesh Rao
-Business Standard Though Indian agriculture has grown to be second largest globally, there are many myths and misconceptions. So, let's find the truth. Though the government over the past few years has been focusing on enhancing manufacturing sector's share to India's GDP, contribution of agriculture to the GDP continues to be higher than that of the manufacturing. India has in abundant four critical fundamental resources - light, land, water & labour. Contrary...
More »So Richie Rich? Have Another One On Us -P Sainath
-Outlook Corporate karza maafi reaches new heights, social spending new lows This year's budget write-off in customs duty on gold, diamonds and jewellery (all aam aadmi items, of course) is Rs 75,592 crore. That's well over twice the "record" amount allocated to the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme. As Prof Jayati Ghosh points out, the MNREGA has given billions of person-days of work to tens of millions of poor...
More »School gets midday meals from its backyard -Anil Kumar Sastry
-The Hindu The Parisara Mitra award-winning Keddalike school is self-sufficient MANGALURU: This school in Bantwal taluk does not have to buy vegetables and coconut to prepare the midday meal that is served to its students. The food is made from fresh and organically grown vegetables that come from a sprawling vegetable garden, cared for by students and teachers in the school's backyard. Zilla Panchayat Higher Primary School, Keddalike, in Kavalamudur village, has rightly bagged...
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