Like 2015, this year too unseasonal rainfall and hailstorm have taken the farmers by surprise. Recent media reports suggest that extreme weather event has damaged rabi crops in a number of states from north India. The Weekly Weather Report prepared for the week spanning 10-16 March, 2016, which was issued by the India Meteorological Department (IMD), shows that excessive rainfall was observed in Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Uttarakhand,...

-The Hindu Business Line MFIs are unable to address the needs of self-help groups. They have been hit by the falling growth of SHGs There has been a long-standing debate on the ability and effectiveness of the formal banking system as a vehicle for financial inclusion. The thrust has been to increase the number of small banks, as they play a very important role in the supply of credit to small business...

-Kafila.org The last few months have seen an unusual public engagement around questions of secularism, freedom of speech, sedition and the like, with furious debates everywhere from our campuses, streets and TV studios to the floor of Parliament. The budget session has been enlivened by scenes of high drama, with the leading lights of the Treasury benches bringing colour, sound and fury to their tutorials on patriotism and nationalism. While these high-decibel...

-People’s Democracy In the last week of February, a panel set up by the WTO’s Dispute Settlement Body ruled against India on a complaint by the US in early 2013 that India’s Domestic Content Requirement (DCR) for some solar power projects violated WTO prohibitions on measures that result in “less favourable treatment” of international trade partners. The panel was ruling on an appeal by India in response to the original injunction...

-Down to Earth Activists have been demanding that the land reforms Bill be brought in Parliament since 2012 Following a two-day protest by more than a thousand landless rural poor at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi, activists claim Prime Minister Narendra Modi has assured protestors that the government will bring the Bill supporting homestead land rights for them before the Parliament. Land rights activists, who met the prime minister at the...