-Down to Earth Sugar prices had remained depressed, which had affected the liquidity of sugar mills, a govt reply said While the new sugar-crushing season is set to begin from October, the outstanding payment dues to sugarcane farmers across the country stand at Rs 15,683 crore as on September 11, according to a reply given to a question in Parliament on September 15, 2020. Of this, Rs 12,994 crore pertains to crop procured...

-The Indian Express The officials involved in the scam allegedly shared the login and password details with brokers. The latter, in turn, earned up to Rs 2,000 per beneficiary. Since March, two instalments have been paid out per beneficiary. Channai: THE Tamil Nadu government has discovered a scam amounting to over Rs 110 crore in the PM-Kisan Scheme, with money withdrawn fraudulently online with the help of government officials and local-level politicians....

-The Indian Express The victim lawyer has been identified as Bilal Kagzi (39), a native of Kosamba village of Mangrol tehsil in Surat district. Gandhinagar: The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has issued a show-cause notice to the Chief Secretary of Gujarat as to why the state government should not pay Rs 1 lakh as compensation to a human rights lawyer in South Gujarat who was “admittedly” falsely implicated in a criminal...

-Down to Earth The Event 142 variety of genetically modified brinjal was quietly given approval without any data in the public domain, claim experts Experts have slammed a recent move of the Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee (GEAC) — a government-appointed committee responsible for appraisal of proposals of genetically engineered organisms — giving its greenlight for biosafety research-level-II (BRL-II) field trials for Event 142, a new variety of genetically modified brinjal (Bt brinjal)...

ActionAid Association's (AAA) national level survey among people dependent on the informal economy during the third phase of the national lockdown towards the end of May 2020 (i.e. between May 14th and May 22nd, 2020) has documented the "nature and extent of the transitions in the lives and livelihoods of informal workers, including migrant workers, during the pandemic and provide[s] an insight into the precarity they experience and the coping...