-The Times of India AHMEDABAD: As the state is waiting for the onset of monsoon, water management experts are worried about harnessing the maximum amount rainwater to replenish aquifers. During a national-level workshop in Ahmedabad on Tuesday, experts said that out of 25 blocks defined by Central Ground Water Board (CGWB), 23 are overexploited in the state. The worst affected are districts in north Gujarat where depletion is more than 100% -...

-The Indian Express As the Modi government completes three years, here are three potentially game-changing steps it could now take to harness the sector’s unrealised potential Amidst the predictable tidal wave of opinion pieces to mark the Narendra Modi government’s third anniversary, one little event last week squeezed its way into the inside pages of a few newspapers. This was a call for a “farm strike” in Maharashtra from June 1,...

-Livemint.com Farmers are already refusing to repay loans in Maharashtra, expecting a waiver in the works on the lines of that in Uttar Pradesh Mumbai: Would you bother to repay a loan if it was going to be written off anyway? Probably not. There’s no farm loan waiver in Maharashtra yet, but farmers are already refusing to repay loans as they expect a waiver in the works, officials in the state’s co-operative banking...

-Scroll.in The falling viability of sugarcane in the fertile Upper Doab is a portent to the tough times India’s farm sector could see in the future. In Mundet Kalan, as dusk sets in, villagers get together for some chatter, passing around a large wooden hookah. The village, located in Shamli district of Western Uttar Pradesh, is dominated by land-owning Jats – who are angry at almost everything around them. “Jaton ke saath bahot...

-Scroll.in India’s first chief statistician, Pronab Sen, is now country director of the International Growth Centre, which seeks to build effective growth facilities through engagement between policymakers and researchers. In this interview to Scroll.in, he speaks on the 50 days of demonetisation, its failings, its severe impact on the poor, the loss of credibility of the Reserve Bank of India, the push to make India a cashless or less-cash economy, and...