-Scroll.in The Forest Rights Act recognises the rights of forest dwelling communities and entrusts them with the responsibility for conservation. The residents of Gunehar village in Himachal Pradesh’s Kangra district are attempting to use the Forest Rights Act to challenge the state Forest Department’s decision to hand over two hectares of local forest land to the Wildlife Department to construct an office complex. At the end of December, the Gunehar panchayat...

-Economic and Political Weekly R Nagaraj (nag@igidr.ac.in) is with the Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, Mumbai. The latest quarterly estimates of gross domestic product by the new National Accounts Statistics methodology are once again in the news for the wrong reasons. With inadequate accurate information available on a quarterly basis, the estimates hardly represent the state of the economy and reflect the effects of demonetisation over the October–December 2016 period. Please click...

-Deccan Chronicle Farmers need to be educated on non-chemical methods. Nellore: Abnormal use of pesticides on vegetables and leafy vegetables has been discouraging gourmets from consuming vegetables not only due to fear over chemical residues also because of chemical odour even after cooking. Vegetable growers have been applying pesticides despite advice by entomologists against the practice pointing to threat to health from chemical residuals. Agriculture officials and scientists claim that they appeal to...

-Hindustan Times Wealthier candidates were far more likely to win their constituency than their less wealthy competitors, according to an analysis of election data and candidate affidavits by the Hindustan Times. Across 689 constituencies in the assembly elections in Goa, Manipur, Punjab, Uttarakhand, and Uttar Pradesh, the wealthiest candidate won 33.5% of the time, compared to just 24.6% for the second wealthiest candidate and 17% for the third wealthiest. The odds were heavily...

-Down to Earth It is estimated that saving one-fourth of the food currently lost or wasted globally would be enough to feed 870 million hungry people in the world Agriculture, along with its allied sectors, is the largest source of livelihood in India. About 82 per cent of the country’s farmers are small and marginal, having holdings less than one hectare. Over the years, irrigation potential has increased largely due to increased...