-The Telegraph Bhubaneswar: Last month, TV grabs of two migrant labourers with their right palms missing sent shock waves across the state. Hailing from Kalahandi district, part of Odisha's poor KBK belt, Nilambar Dhangada and Bialu Nial had to lose their palms for refusing to do the bidding of the labour contractor who had hired them for work in Raipur but was forcing them to go to Andhra Pradesh and work at...

-Frontline Two draft Bills on the Tribal Sub-Plan and the Scheduled Caste Sub-Plan raise hopes of granting these decades-old schemes statutory status and ensuring allocation of funds in the Central and State budgets for their implementation. IN a significant legislative move, the Union government's Ministry of Tribal Affairs released a draft Bill for the implementation of the long-neglected Tribal Sub-Plan (TSP), a special programme mandated by the Planning Commission to benefit the...

-Down to Earth Faced with crop losses because of erratic rainfall and extreme weather, tribal farmers of Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh turn to bewar and penda forms of cultivation that keeps them nourished all times of the year, but government agencies are bent on rooting out these farm practices Hariaro Bai Deoria should have been a worried person this year-an untimely spell of rain late last October flattened her paddy crop, and...

-The Indian Express Domestic workers in the state are meant to get minimum wage of Rs 5,000, health care benefits, scholarships for kids, life insurance. It's 4 am and Vasanthi B is already up. After years, it's now a habit, and she doesn't need an alarm to wake up to get her daughters Shweta, Shilpa and Shobha, aged 11, 9 and 7 respectively, ready for school. By the time they leave at...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Agriculture minister Sharad Pawar on Wednesday said the country's food grain production is likely to reach an all-time high level this year as bumper crops are expected in wheat, rice and pulses on the back of good monsoon rain last year. He said wheat production is likely to cross 100 million tonnes for the first time in 2013-14, surpassing the previous record of 94.88 million tonnes...