-The Hindu BHUBANESWAR: The Odisha government is giving final touches to the proposed amendment to the Odisha Scheduled Areas Transfer of Immovable Property Regulations, 1956, which would open a window for tribals to sell their land to non-tribals in the Fifth Schedule areas. As per the proposal, tribal land will be transferred to tribal or non-tribal buyers through auction. The State government, which has already held four consultations on the issue in...

-BBC Pollution soared to hazardous levels in Delhi on the night of Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights, reaching 40 times the limit recommended by the World Health Organisation, reports say. Massive quantities of fireworks go up in smoke during the festival. On Wednesday night, the levels of PM10 particulates, which are very hazardous to health, rose to 2,000 micrograms per cubic metre, reports said. The WHO recommends a maximum of 50 micrograms per...

-Financial Express The country must double its support to farmers, from the current levels of about 6-8% of the value of agri-output It was in the mid-1980s that the ‘India-Bharat’ phraseology was fist pushed into political jargon, by farmers’ leader Sharad Joshi, with ‘India’ representing the urban elite of the country and ‘Bharat’ synonymous with its neglected rural folk. Joshi, at the time, was leading lakhs of farmers protesting against anti-farmer policies,...

-Livemint.com As many as 23 out of 38 districts have received deficit rain ranging 20-60% of the normal; overall, the 2015 Jun-Sep monsoon recorded a 28% deficit Nitish Kumar, who will take oath as chief minister of Bihar for the third consecutive time, will face a daunting task as he tries to tackle rural distress in the state that has been hit by a drought. The issue had found little mention in the...

-Economic and Political Weekly The platform known as the JAM Trinity (an acronym for Jan Dhan Yojana, Aadhaar and mobile numbers) may enable a shift from the current Public Distribution System, based on price subsidies, to the direct transfer of benefits. However, it is incorrect to argue that JAM technologies will necessarily lead to the demise of the PDS. State-level experiences of computerisation, recounted here, reveal that the same technologies can...