-The Indian Express Raising agricultural exports requires the government to unburden policy of consumer bias. A balance should be struck between meeting the needs of food-insecure consumers and income-insecure farmers. The Agriculture Minister, Radha Mohan Singh, recently tweeted about the government’s resolve to increase the value of the country’s agricultural exports to $100 billion by 2022-23. The Dalwai Committee Report on doubling farmers’ incomes also talked of a similar target. It said,...

-The Economic Times NEW DELHI: After a successful Bharat Bandh against the Supreme Court judgement on the SC/ST Act, the government is worried about losing the perception battle to rival political parties on being pro-Dalit. While the suggestion for issuing an Ordinance-if needed to counter an adverse SC verdict on the review petitioncame from the Prime Minister’s Office, some cabinet ministers are of the view that issues like reservation in promotion and...

-The Hindu The withdrawal of ill-conceived restrictions on livestock trade is welcome Good sense appears to have prevailed at last. With a fresh set of draft rules to replace last year’s poorly conceived ones, the Centre has sought to withdraw the ban on sale of cattle for slaughter in animal markets. The draft rules are now open for comments and suggestions. When the Union Ministry for Environment, Forests and Climate Change notified...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: The Union environment ministry has released new draft rules to replace proposals from last year that would have banned the sale of cattle for slaughter in animal markets and had stunned the livestock industry and prompted the Centre to rethink the move. The ministry on April 5 notified draft rules to supersede its May 2017 draft rules that would have required sellers and purchasers to declare that cattle...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: PM Narendra Modi is understood to have expressed serious concern over data leaks and alleged manipulation of user information by global internet and social media giants. According to top sources, the PM has instructed that data sharing should be regulated and servers be located within the country.   The issue came up for discussion during a recent meeting of the Union Cabinet, where the episode of data...