-Down to Earth Rural women in Uttar Pradesh join hands to end gender bias in agriculture and claim joint ownership of land Breaking the stereotype of rural women, 39-year-old Suresho Saini proudly drives a tractor to plough 1.6 hectares (ha) of agricultural land in Rahimpur village in Uttar Pradesh's Saharanpur district. The plot belongs exclusively to her. "Women working in agricultural fields are a common sight in India; yet when we think...

-Economic and Political Weekly     Sustained and focused efforts have to be made by the Tamil Nadu state government to provide relief and rehabilitation to the drought affected people of the state. S Rajendran (myrajendran@gmail.com) is with the Department of Economics, Periyar University, Salem, Tamil Nadu. Due to the failure of the north-east monsoon in December 2013, Tamil Nadu is witnessing drought like conditions this year, leading to poor agricultural productivity, rural distress,...

India has witnessed many fiery debates on poverty estimates. Equally contentious has been the issue of inequality. Now a new report on exclusion offers a fresh perspective on poverty, inequality and social justice. (See below a summary of the report) Based on data and knowledge resources available in the public domain, India Exclusion Report 2013-14 highlights the systematic discrimination faced by women, Scheduled Castes (SCs), Scheduled Tribes (STs), Muslims, persons with...

-The Hindu Among various types of agriculture, dairy farming is often considered to be quite remunerative. Almost all veterinary institutes in the country keep harping on the relatively high income that a dairy unit can generate for a farmer. "But what they often fail to emphasise is that cattle rearing alone is not profitable. In fact merely having some milch cattle would prove disastrous for a farmer since the animals need green...

-The Times of India   PATIALA: Dalits in Punjab are being used as proxy bidders by upper caste peasants to corner thousands of acres of agricultural village land that should ideally be rented out only to scheduled caste members. This practice has been exposed by the Punjab State Scheduled Caste Commission in its report on the boycott of dalits in Baupur village by upper caste members. The state government gives out agricultural...