A Farmers’ Round Table held in Dharwad has demanded that the state agricultural universities in Dharwad and Bangalore must present their research initiatives of the year in front of a farmers’ jury mainly of the small and marginalised and commit to respect its verdict. The Round Table also demanded that at every Krishi Mela held across the state, there should be a mini farmers’ jury to openly and transparently discuss the...

Led by C. Rangarajan, it has been appointed by Manmohan In a significant move, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has formed an experts group chaired by the chief of Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council, C. Rangarajan, to examine the recommendations of the Sonia Gandhi-headed National Advisory Council on the proposed food security Bill. The move surprised members of the council who met here on Friday to discuss the draft of the National Food...

Manual scavenging persists, but community and political mobilisation of workers has initiated change. Only those who are in denial are surprised by the continued existence in India of casteism and inhuman practices associated with stigmatisation, despite institutions of the state decreeing their abolition. But progress has been made in fits and starts, and agency – in the form of community and political mobilisation – has played a role in their slow...

Deadlock continues in dalits temple entry issue at Uthamapalayam village in Tirupur district as the caste Hindus, who are in a sizable number in the village, continued to avoid several round of talks chaired by Dharapuram RDO as they felt it as a disgrace to allow dalits to sit equally with them. Hence, tension prevails in the village. M Thangavel, state organiser for Avinashi-based Vizhuthugal, an NGO working for the rights of...

Often called Chanakya for his political astuteness, Engineer-politician Nitish Kumar blended his secularist ideology with pragmatic politics and combined the development plank with innovative social engineeering equations in Bihar to bask in glory yet again. Doing an encore after today's landslide victory, the 59-year-old chief minister with his trademark kurta pyjama and grey stubble has become RJD strongman Lalu Prasad's nemesis single handedly contributing to the electoral meltdown of RJD-led Secular...