-The Telegraph Nagpur: Maharashtra's BJP-led government has put on hold confined field trials for genetically modified (GM) crops "until all doubts are cleared", following "objections from reputed members of society" including RSS affiliate Swadeshi Jagran Manch. No time bar has been specified for the restrictions, which come days before the onset of the monsoon and the start of the sowing season. The state agriculture department wrote to private and public sector companies on...
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The promised land -Christophe Jaffrelot
-The Indian Express Government’s insistence on acquisition is rooted in a rush to impose the Gujarat model on the rest of India. The development agenda of the Narendra Modi government implies industrialisation. The BJP’s 2014 mandate was indeed for job creation. The “neo-middle class”, which Modi defined when he was CM of Gujarat as made up of aspiring city dwellers who have just emerged from poverty, supported him more widely than the...
More »From plate to plough: Padyatras, politics, policies -Ashok Gulati
-The Indian Express Rahul Gandhi will help farmers more if he focuses on how policies are implemented On April 30, Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi undertook a padyatra of about 15 km in the Vidarbha region to register his sympathy and concerns for farmers. Vidarbha has been reeling under agrarian distress for many years, and has also been an epicentre of farmer suicides. Cotton being one of the primary crops of this...
More »Sick policies, starving farmers -Amit Bhardwaj
-Tehelka Agrarian policies are proving to be an albatross around the neck of ordinary farmers Amon Singh Kevat, 70, a small farmer in Vidisha, Madhya Pradesh, spent three long days in April waiting for his harvest to be picked up from an open plot that served as a mandi (procurement centre for agricultural produce). In need of money for a marriage in the family, Kevat didn’t even go home for meals. But...
More »Kutch's 'Swimming Camels' recognized as separate breed
-The Times of India AHMEDABAD: Kutch's unique breed of camels that can swim in seawater - identified as Kharai due to its habitat and eating habits - has been recognized as a separate camel breed by the National Bureau of Animal Genetic Resources (NBAGR) located in Karnal, Haryana. Kharai has now become the ninth breed of camels found in India. Now, Kutch has two identified breeds native to the region - the...
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