-The Indian Express Forest Rights Act is not an obstacle to growth. Its non-implementation will be politically counter-productive. The farmers’ and forest dwellers’ march from Nashik to Mumbai, and the Maharashtra government’s decision to approve most of their demands within the next six months, has established the fact that land and forest rights are going to be determining factors for political establishments across India. The protest in Mumbai tells us that a...

-PTI Mumbai: Farmers have "reclaimed" 125 acres in Maharashtra's Ahmednagar district, claiming that bank FRAud accused Nirav Modi had acquired their plots at prices below the market rate. A group of over 200 farmers, who arrived in bullock carts at Khandala in Karjat tehsil, symbolically reoccupied the land, ploughing a part of it using a tractor. The farmers said they would start cultivation on the entire tract soon. They said the plots had...

-Down to Earth Genetically modified food items are flooding Indian markets with seemingly no trouble at all Just last year the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) had told the Supreme Court that “GM (genetically modified) foods are not allowed in the country” and yet no action has been taken against the GM foods flooding Indian markets. The Coalition for a GM-free India has complained to the FSSAI with pictorial...

-IANS Farmer suicides have been taking place across India for years now, and studies of rural distress reveal the deeply-rooted, tenacious causes, such as lack of irrigation, FRAgmentation of land, unsuitability of seeds and inadequate sources of credit. Despite the democratically-elected governments that claim to represent a country where over half the population is dependent on farming, agriculture has been consistently ignored at a steep cost to farmers' lives. Remedies have been...

-Livemint.com RBI’s regulatory powers over PSU banks are weaker than those over the private sector banks, says Urjit Patel, putting the onus of tackling bank FRAuds such as the one at PNB on the finance ministry Mumbai: Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor Urjit Patel broke his silence on Wednesday on the PNB FRAud, putting up a blistering defence for the regulator and sought to put the onus on the finance ministry...