-The Hindu The Aadhaar Bill opens the door to mass surveillance. This danger needs to be seen in the light of recent attacks on the right to dissent. No other country, and certainly no democratic country, has ever held its own citizens hostage to such a powerful infrastructure of surveillance. The Aadhaar project was sold to the public based on the claim that enrolment was “voluntary”. This basically meant that there was...

-Hindustan Times Jhabua: Bhil tribes people in Madhya Pradesh’s Jhabua and Alirajpur districts have revived their age-old tradition “halma” to conserve environment. Bhil tribes people said the water level and forest cover in the two districts are decreasing and if they do not conserve the natural resources then the next generation will suffer. More than 85% people in the two districts are tribal; most of them are farmers and daily wage workers. Alirajpur...

-Livemint.com The Union government has cut the prices of genetically-modified cotton seeds and slashed royalty fees by 74% The Union government’s decision to cut the prices of genetically-modified (GM) cotton seeds, popularly known as Bt cotton, and slash royalty fees, will have a positive impact on cotton farming in Maharashtra, India’s top state in terms of area under cotton cultivation. The Maharashtra government’s agriculture officials, cotton growers and officials at the Nagpur-based...

-Livemint.com As the country still continues to debate the beef ban and its impact on agrarian distress, data shows that what’s really being hit is the sex ratio of the bovine population New Delhi: Bulls are missing, both in India’s equity markets and in its fields. As the country still continues to debate the beef ban and its impact on agrarian distress, data shows that what’s really being hit is the...

-Hindustan Times Dehradun: Uttarakhand has not been able to improve its agricultural growth in the past 15 years though the majority of its population and area are still classified as rural and the state government has a record of nearly 100% spending of its budgetary allocations. Hill farming is still awaiting special attention from the government as much of the state’s agriculture budget comes from the Centre and most of the agri-development...