-The Business Standard   Agriculture ministry wants review of clamps on holdings; rural development ministry seeks centralisation of records With Narendra Modi set to take over as prime minister in the next few days, the department of agriculture is proposing a comprehensive review of land ceiling laws as a first major reform in the sector.   Land also figures in the to-do list of the rural development ministry. It has proposed centralisation of land records...

-Down to Earth   Advance estimates by agriculture ministry project 0.8 million tonnes increase in production over earlier estimate despite freak weather event   The unseasonal rains and hail in March this year seem to have had little effect on overall crop production estimation. India is going to witness its highest foodgrain production of 264 milllion tonnes, according to the third advance estimates for 2013-14, released by the Union agriculture ministry on Friday. It...

-The Times of India   NAGPUR: The voting figures available after elections show an extensive use of 'None of the above' (NOTA) option in most Naxal-affected Lok Sabha constituencies like Gadchiroli in Maharashtra, Bastar and Kanker in Chhattisgarh and Adilabad in Andhra Pradesh. The wide use of NOTA has led to suspicions that Naxals may have prompted voters to go for it given that they had called for a boycott of polls. In...

-The Hindu   This election has created new trends and narratives even as it has sharpened old ones, says Rukmini S. through an analysis of electoral data High voter turnouts are frequently believed to be indicative of anti-incumbency. Following the record-breaking 66.7 per cent voter turnout this time, political parties and some in the media declared that this meant that the country had voted for change. Yet The Hindu's analysis shows that there...

-The Business Standard   A seven-point agenda to fix India's public services, and overcome poorly designed systems India's Achilles Heel remains its inability to deliver public services. India's aspiration to be a global economic power will be unrealised if this remains unsolved. Why is this problem so particularly acute? Is it political interference and corruption, poorly designed programmes and weak administration? Or a much deeper cultural problem of aversion to collective action, often...