-DNA The failure of Bt Cotton to ward off pests has pushed farmers to penury The whitefly attack that has devastated the cotton crop in parts of Punjab and Haryana and caused heavy losses to farmers was a disaster that was waiting to happen. Estimates say that some 8 lakh hectare of standing cotton has been destroyed causing damage worth crores of rupees, which has hit farmers hard. This disaster was waiting...
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Monsanto, cotton seeds firms at war
-Business Standard Both sides make claims and counter claims over who owes money to whom in plea filed before Bombay HC by Monsanto Hyderabad: The rising dispute between Monsanto and the Indian Seed Companies over the quantum of trait value being fixed towards the transfer of BT Cotton technology reached to a peak with both the parties making claims and counter claims over who vows the money to whom in a petition...
More »Dr Vandana Shiva, scientist and longtime activist against genetically modified BT seeds, interviewed by Pragya Singh
-Outlook Scientist and longtime activist against genetically modified BT seeds, Dr. Vandana Shiva, talks about why BT has a devastating fallout. A sudden pest attack has ruined cotton crops in large parts of Punjab, bringing biotech, or BT Cotton back into focus. Farmers who used bio-fertilisers in the Malwa region of the state are said to be safe from this latest pestilence. But those growing BT cotton have lost everything. There...
More »Aadhaar, rights and the state -Usha Ramanathan
-The Indian Express The problem is that Aadhaar was never about individual choice, and was never intended to be voluntary. Nandan Nilekani’s plea that the Supreme Court “tweak” its order of August 11 in his article in these pages (‘Why Supreme Court judgment on Aadhaar calls for an appeal’, September 15) is innocent of the experience that people have had with the unique identification (UID) project in the past five years....
More »Centre unveils package to tackle rural distress --Elizabeth Roche, Saurabh Kumar and Utpal Bhaskar
-Livemint.com MGNREGS work days increased to 150 from 100; Rs.5,142 cr rurban project to create 300 smart village clusters New Delhi: The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government on Wednesday unveiled a package of measures to combat rural distress in the backdrop of a below-average monsoon rainfall. The Union cabinet decided to increase the number of days of employment under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) from the existing 100...
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