-The Hindu Why are farm unions seeking a minimum support price for all crops? What are the terms of the committee set up to look into their demands? The story so far: After a year-long agitation on the borders of Delhi, protesting farm unions under the banner of the Samyukt Kisan Morcha have achieved their headline demand, namely the repeal of three contentious laws seeking to reform the storage and marketing of...

-Newsclick.in Bihar DAP Shortage Delays Sowing of Rabi Crops, Farmers Fear Loss in Quality Patna: Rajeshwar Mandal and Surajdeo Yadav are extremely worried as the sowing of maize, wheat, pulses and mustard has been delayed due to the acute shortage of diammonium phosphate (DAP). The marginal farmers of the flood-hit Seemanchal-Koshi region of Bihar fear that the delay in sowing the Rabi crops will affect their quality and production. Mandal and Yadav are...

-The Hindu In its current form, the Char Dham road project goes against all environmental safeguards The Char Dham road project, inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2016, is an ambitious attempt to widen nearly 900 kilometres of hill roads at the cost of ₹12,000 crore. The project, which will be executed by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH), aims to provide all-weather connectivity to the four major shrines...

The increase in the total number of suicides committed in India during 2020 in comparison to the previous years has hit the headlines recently. While some media commentators have stated that the economic distress (caused by job loss, income loss, failure of business, and growing hunger, among other things) in 2020 could have led to more suicides being committed, others have said that home isolation and deteriorating mental health (associated...

-Down to Earth Promoted by the government, short-duration varieties now dominate Punjab’s paddy landscape and allow farmers enough time to clear the field without setting them on fire. Why then are straw burning incidents still on the rise? Gursimran is somewhat dejected as he oversees a combined harvesting machine working his paddy fields. “Though the yield is better than what it has been in the past two years, it is still not...