-The Hindu Steep rise in inputs and uncertainty over water availability are among factors Chennai: More and more small and marginal farmers are selling their meagre landholdings to become agricultural workers. This is how agriculturists, policy-makers and economists explain the finding in the Census for Tamil Nadu: Between 2001 and 2011, the strength of cultivators declined and the number of agricultural workers went up. In the 10-year period, there was a fall of...
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A website that explains why women can touch a bottle of pickle on all days -Kim Arora
-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Don't enter the kitchen. Don't wash your hair. Don't touch that bottle of pickle. Improvements in level of education and age notwithstanding, many Indian women still end up imposing these and several other restrictions on themselves every month. The belief that the menstrual cycle renders them impure is the root cause behind such impositions. Three young entrepreneurs are now working to bring out a comic...
More »Bastar: How democracy lost a generation -Jaideep Hardikar
-The Telegraph Faraspal, Chhattisgarh: The Salwa Judum was a failure, both to its opponents and the man who was its face. "I shall repent the Salwa Judum's failure my entire life," Mahendra Karma had told a Dantewada journalist last year, months before being assassinated by the rebels last week. The 62-year-old tribal Congress leader wasn't referring to the extortion, murder and rape charges against the anti-Maoist militia - he considered them "collateral damage"...
More »Why the food security Bill will not boost foodgrain consumption for the poor -Arvind Panagariya
-The Times of India So much has already been written on the food security Bill that there would seem to be no justification for another column on it. Yet, a recent look at some consumption data has convinced me otherwise. How the food security Bill impacts people's lives ultimately depends on the effect it will have on the consumption basket of the beneficiaries. If you believe in serious analysis over flag waving,...
More »Misplaced largesse for food security-Kathyayini Chamaraj
-Deccan Herald The very first announcement made by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on taking charge as the new CM is that the unit system under the Public Distribution System (PDS) would be scrapped and 30kg of rice at Re 1/kg would be given to each Below Poverty Line (BPL) household, irrespective of the size of the family. This is estimated to cost Rs 2,373 crore a year, almost double the estimated Rs 1,200...
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