-The Indian Express For farmers, a uniform 2 per cent premium rate on sum insured (SI) for all kharif or monsoon season foodgrains and oilseeds, while 1.5 per cent for rabi winter crops and 5 per cent for annual commercial and horticultural crops, is the lowest they can hope for. The country couldn’t possibly have, at least on paper, a better agricultural crop insurance scheme than the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: The government told the Supreme Court on Wednesday that even if privacy was assumed to be a fundamental right, it could not attain a status higher than the right to food ensured through Aadhaar for 270 million impoverished people. A nine-judge Constitution bench headed by Chief Justice J S Khehar tried its best to elicit a direct "yes" or "no" reply from attorney general K K...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: The Centre in a U-turn today told the Supreme Court the right to privacy can be a fundamental right subject to certain LIMitations, and said it wanted a "smaller bench" - instead of the current nine-judge constitution bench - to decide whether the Aadhaar scheme violated that right. Attorney-general K.K. Venugopal, the country's top law officer, made the concession after the bench of Chief Justice J.S. Khehar and...

-Down to Earth Multiple gaps in implementation of crop insurance schemes may have compromised their purpose of benefitting farmers The CAG audit report of the Centre’s crop insurance schemes has highlighted gaps in their implementation that compromise its purpose of providing financial assistance to farmers. The Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) looked into the performance of two schemes—Modified National Agricultural Insurance Scheme (MNAIS) and the National Crop Insurance Programme (NCIP)...

-The Hindu Strengthening the repayment capacity of farmers by improving and stabilising their income is the only way to keep them out of distress Indian agriculture is characterised by low scale and low productivity. About 85% of the operational landholdings in the country are below 5 acres and 67% farm households survive on an average landholding of one acre. More than half of the area under cultivation does not have access to...