-The Telegraph New Delhi: A home ministry helpline offering information on quake-hit Nepal has been swamped by Indian farMers airing their distress, embarrassing a government already under the Opposition's cosh for its "anti-farMer" policies. Compounding the discomfiture, most of the callers are demanding the Rs 15 lakh that Narendra Modi had, during last year's election campaign, promised to deposit in every bank account after retrieving black money from abroad, ministry officials said. "We...

-The Indian Express Niggling procedural hassles stymie efforts to modernise antiquated labour regulations.   As it completes one year in office, the NDA government seems to have finally bit the bullet and taken up the controversial Industrial Disputes Act, 1947, for amendments that would allow easier retrenchment and closure norms for firms with up to 300 workers though ensuring that the employees get higher compensation in return. The draft code on industrial relations has...

-The Hindu Gajendra Singh Rajput from Dausa. Hargovind Harane from Vidarbha . Gosai Patra from Bardhaman. Why did these farMers take their own lives? In the light of the burning issue of farMer suicides across the country, A.R. Vasavi looks at the plight of the marginalised cultivator. Basamma and her ailing husband have carried and spread their five sacks of ragi (finger millet) from their half-acre plot to the local tar road...

-Economic and Political Weekly Ten years on, the progressive provisions of the amended Indian Patents Act are being watered down. Ten years have passed since the Indian Patents Act, 1970 was amended in 2005 to bring the country’s laws in line with the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS). The most important of the 2005 amendments was the introduction of product patents for 20 years, including for pharmaceutical products,...

-The Hindu After beef ban, no buyers for old bullocks. AMRAVATI: For the fourth week in a row, Balu Bhalve has returned home dejected. In the sweltering heat, the debt-ridden farMer travelled more than 15 km from his village to sell a pair of old bullocks at Badnera Mandi here on Friday. But the cattle market, abuzz on the weekly auction day even two months ago, presents a grim picture now. Even after...