-The Hindu Business Line Sowing completed in 73 per cent area under kharif cultivation Pune: With rains continuing to evade Maharashtra, the dams across the State are left with just 25 per cent water compared to 46.5 per cent stock during the same period last year. Situation in drought hit Marathwada region is alarming as dams have just 0.82 per cent water. There are 4,716 water tankers plying to cater drinking water...

-The Indian Express Normalisation of surveillance destroys what sustains a civilisation — human interaction filled with trust, care. Even though Delhi Government’s decision to install CCTV cameras in school classrooms has generated an interesting debate, it is important to see beyond the classrooms, and reflect more intensely on the meaning of living in a society that normalises and sanctifies surveillance. As an ideology that seeks to become hegemonic, the practice of surveillance...

-National Herald Agriculture, food and trade policy expert Devinder Sharma writes: “My understanding is that only agriculture can reboot the economy, sustain millions of livelihoods, and reduce global warming.” At a time when Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz says that neo-liberalism is ‘dead and buried’, and the world as a result is increasingly grappling with the gigantic problems of rising unemployment, gnawing inequality and climatic change reaching a tripping point, agriculture alone has...

-The Hindu Business Line Hyderabad: The number of farmer suicides in Telangana seems to have come down over the past few months. But the agriculture sector continues to suffer from severe distress, and a staggering 12,820 farmers who had taken the Rythu Bima insurance cover have died due to various reasons over the past year. “About Rs.640 crore of the aggregate sum assured has been paid to the kin of 12,820 farmers...

-Newsclick.in “Our population today is around 136 crore. Where will you get food grains for them through zero budget farming? This is sheer madness.” There is an inherent seductive charm to the term zero budget natural farming, for it makes the arduous occupation of agriculture appear beguilingly simple, an economic proposition without any risk or even requirement of capital. Coined by the Vidarbha-based farmer, Subhash Palekar, who was bestowed with the Padma...