-The Hindu Agrarian crisis has not dimmed Prime Minister Modi’s appeal The sugarcane farmers gathered around a tree-shaded charpoy at Bhainswala village, a few kilometres from Shamli town in western Uttar Pradesh, share a common litany of woes — late payments, high input costs, the stray cattle menace — for which most blame the policies of the BJP government. But when the discussion veers around to the Lok Sabha election, pandemonium breaks out...

-The Telegraph The Sunderban region needs to be more effectively represented in Parliament Immediately after the schedule of the seventeenth Lok Sabha election was declared, a news item appeared that said dwellers of the mangrove forests of the Sunderbans have demanded immediate implementation of the Forest Rights Act in the isLands and declared that they would vote for candidates who support their cause. This demand was articulated by the Jana Sramajibi Manch,...

-The Indian Express It is best read as a political promise for social security. There is more than one way of redeeming it Guaranteed minimum income is a powerful idea that has already made some headway in various countries. Some European countries, for instance, guarantee a minimum income to their citizens. This requires extensive data collection as well as an effective cadre of welfare officers and social workers tasked with enquiring...

-IndiaSpend.com Bangalore & New Delhi: About 42% of India’s Land area is facing drought, with 6% exceptionally dry--four times the spatial extent of drought last year, according to data for the week ending March 26, 2019, from the Drought Early Warning System (DEWS), a real-time drought monitoring platform. Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Maharashtra, parts of the North-East, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu and Telangana are the worst hit. These states are home...

-The New Indian Express In market-driven agriculture, the crisis deepens with the existing asymmetries between men and women farmers. NEW DELHI: Green Revolution marginalises women farmers pushing them to the fringes, according to a paper by Centre for Social Justice and the Revitalizing Rainfed Agricultural Network. This is primarily because the Green Revolution tends to be dismissive of women’s contributions to agriculture, the paper pointed out. Green Revolution leads to the dismantling of...