-DNA India's agriculture sector is thriving and can provide Livelihood to millions more. False pictures form the main plank of the political debate on India's agriculture. One is that of the Bharatiya Janata Party and the other of the Congress. The two big political parties in the country agree with each other in believing that farmers and the landless folk in the villages are at the end of the tether, and...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: The Narendra Modi government has granted the military permission to test missiles targeting four ecologically fragile islands in the Andaman and Nicobar group in the Bay of Bengal, junking a UPA policy derisively known as "birds-over-bombs". The islands are uninhabited or largely uninhabited for most of the year, a source in the defence ministry claimed. Environmental organisations such as the Nature Conservation Foundation, Mysore, claim the islands are home...

-The Hindu Business Line Agriculture development and food security form the foundation of manufacturing growth. Modi must realise this Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s exhortation ‘Make in India’ would make perfect sense till we realise that by ‘making’ he means manufacturing. But could it be that his focus on manufacturing may come a cropper if we do not ensure that agriculture is placed permanently on a sound footing? The history of the great...

-PTI AHMEDABAD: A prominent agriculture analyst has proposed setting up of income commission at national and state levels for farmers, which will guarantee them specific monthly income against the backdrop of agrarian crisis. "An income commission should be formed for farmers, under which they would be entitled to get a minimum monthly income on the basis of their production and the area under cultivation," said Devinder Sharma. He was speaking to reporters on...

-The New Indian Express KOTTAYAM: There is a sharp decline in money-borrowing from local money lenders and private lending institutions in Ernakulam since the commencement of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), says a study conducted by the School of International Relations and Politics (SIRP) at the Mahatma Gandhi University here. The MGNREG scheme has made headway in Ernakulam district, stresses the Impact Assessment Study conducted by the SIRP...