-The Hindu Forging gram sabha resolutions clears the path to lucrative mining... Such fictions manufacture on file the legal requirement of villagers’ participation and consent. Over 12,000 villages across Odisha conserve their community forests, says a 2013 Odisha Jungle Manch study. In a visit last October to seven villages in Keonjhar district’s Gandhamardan range, Munda communities showed me their forest protection rosters. Each roster listed four villagers for every weekday to roam...

-The Tribune The Centre for Equity Studies, Delhi, conducted a survey to gauge the impact of the switch to cash transfers on the consumption patterns of the poor in Chandigarh. The preference for kind vis-a-vis cash transfers was recorded. Importantly, public opinion found no place in the decision- making process. Feroza Begum had to make a choice between Food Security and her children's education. Allow me to rephrase it: Feroza Begum had...

-The Hindu New Delhi: The Centre on Thursday informed the Supreme Court that Rs. 11,030 crore will be released to States within a week to run the MGNREGA programme, especially to generate employment in drought-hit areas. In an affidavit filed by the Rural Development Ministry, the government told the Supreme Court that the amount will take care of pending wage liability of Rs. 7,983 crore under the MGNREGA scheme as on...

Amidst the prevailing gloominess over agrarian crisis, a recently released report says that the growth rate of agricultural output in both India and China were the same during 2008-2013. The agricultural gross domestic product (GDP) of both these countries on an average grew at 3.3 percent per annum during that period. The latest available data from the 2016 Global Food Policy Report, however, indicates that the neighbouring countries of Sri Lanka...

-PTI Ahmedabad: Gujarat government today started implementation of National Food Security Act (NFSA), state cabinet minister Bhupendrasinh Chudasama said. The scheme, however, will be officially launched on April 6 by Chief Minister Ananiben Patel, Chudasama, the Gujarat Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer affairs minister, said. "Under the scheme, we will cover around 3.40 crore eligible citizens who will be given food grains at subsidised rates through our Public Distribution System (PDS) shops. The...