-TheWire.in Instead of evicting forest-dwelling communities for engaging in traditional activities in protected areas and reserved forests, the government should use them for co-management. In a circular released on March 28, 2017, the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) ordered the directors of all tiger reserves to refrain from recognising the rights of forest dwellers within critical tiger habitats. Since its enactment in 2006, the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of...

-Livemint.com Raju Shetty, SSS founder and MP from Hatkanangle, says Maharashtra farmers are feeling ‘let-down and betrayed’ by three years of the Modi rule Mumbai: The ‘Sangharsha Yatra’ launched by all opposition parties in Maharashtra to demand a farm loan waiver may have ended but chief minister Devendra Fadnavis is unlikely to see any let-up in the farmers’ protest across the state. What is worse for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led state government...

-The Hindu All houses in the State, however remote they may be, will have power connection thanks to the State government’s total electrification project THIRUVANANTHAPURAM (Kerala): Narayanan Kani flicked on the single switch hanging by the side of a pole, which holds up his hut. A point of white light, slightly bigger than the tip of a ball-point pen, came alive. This is the only electricity that he and his wife Maathi...

-The Indian Express On agriculture, three years into the Modi government, while many steps have been taken to realise promises made in 2014, others have fallen by the wayside With the Modi government completing three years in office, it is time to assess its performance in various sectors. We focus here on agriculture. Without robust growth in agriculture, “sabka saath, sabka vikas” will remain an empty slogan. There are two ways to evaluate...

-TheWire.in Conditionalities related to utilising health services do not make any sense in the absence of a service guarantee, and only serve to blame the victims and not the system for its failures. Nearly six months after the prime minister announced maternity benefits of Rs 6,000 to pregnant and lactating mothers, the cabinet yesterday approved the implementation of the maternity benefits programme (MBP) – a scheme that will likely exclude a large...