-The Telegraph Kolkata: Owners of potato cold storages today announced a day’s shutdown on Monday and threatened a longer agitation to protest the Mamata Banerjee government’s refusal to allow a rent hike. Many officials termed this as another instance of the “populist” government’s reluctance to raise tariffs. “The rent is our only source of income. Overhead costs have spiralled in the past two years. But the government is not allowing us to increase...

-Outlook Bitter Seeds, a documentary film produced by US-based filmmaker Micha Peled on the agrarian crisis of cotton growers and their plight, is being shown in Vidarbha region. "Every 30 minutes, a farmer in the country kills himself in despair because he no longer can provide for his family. The documentary film takes the viewers to a village at the centre of suicide crisis region in Vidarbha to explore what's behind the...

-Outlook The issue of FDI in retail is expected to generate a storm in the Winter Session of Parliament beginning next week, with the Left parties today announcing their decision to move motions entailing voting to oppose the government's proposal. At a time when BJP and several other parties have also opposed FDI in retail, the Left leaders said they have appealed to all parties to support the motions in both Houses...

-The Hindu Kerala’s Kudumbashree network and the rural employment guarantee scheme have converged to provide a unique model of empowerment An incredible story of empowerment has been unfolding in the wake of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) programme in the State of Kerala. This is the story of how a socially engineered convergence of the scheme with panchayati raj institutions and the State sponsored community network of poor...

-The Indian Express Farmers welcome the stand of the government of India on the outright rejection of the recommendations of the technical expert committee to the Supreme Court, which suggested that a moratorium be imposed on field trials of GM crops. The SC shot down the proposal of an interim moratorium that would have strangled technology and innovation in the country. The moratorium would have also prevented Indian scientists and companies...