-Down to Earth There is a widespread availability of inferior quality as well as spurious biofertiliser and organic fertiliser products across the country The availability, quality and uptake of biofertilisers and organic fertilisers in India is poor, flagged a new report. These non-chemical options are considered critical to the transition from chemical-based to sustainable farming practices like organic and natural farming. The availability of cost-effective quality biofertilisers and organic fertilisers is, therefore, of...

-The Telegraph Chief Justice says the Union and State Governments account for 50 per cent of the cases in the country Chief Justice of India N.V. Ramana on Saturday castigated “illegal arrests”, custody torture and biased investigations by police while spelling out why governments deserved most of the blame for the backlog of 4 crore court cases in the country. “If police investigations are fair, if illegal arrests and custodial torture come to...

-Newsclick.in The central government has raked in over Rs18 lakh crore from excise duties compared to Rs14 lakh crore from taxes by all State Governments over the past eight years. Yet again, the government has tried to obfuscate the exorbitant petrol/diesel prices by blaming State Governments. This time, it was the Prime Minister himself who blamed some Opposition-ruled states for not reducing taxes like the Value Added Tax (VAT) after the central...

-DailyPioneer.com Food grain traders protest against tax hike Ranchi: Different trade bodies associated with Federation of Jharkhand Chamber of Commerce and Industries (FJCCI) on Wednesday staged a symbolic protest against the agriculture marketing tax imposed by the State government. The trade organizations associated with fruits, vegetables, food grains, rice mills, retail traders and others participated in the protest. The trade bodies questioned the imposition of new agriculture tax in the State (Jharkhand) where...

-NITI Aayog Working Paper, ISBN: 978-81-953811-7-3 Abstract -  The importance of agriculture in an economy usually declines as it climbs the development ladder. Raising agriculture productivity has been known to be an important precursor. Labour productivity in agriculture can either be increased by higher land productivity or higher land availability per farmer and mechanisation. In India, however, the dramatic increase in land productivity through industrial farming has caused severe environmental damage and...