-The Hindu Rather than criminalising bribegivers, the objective of combating coercive corruption would be achieved if the government puts in place a grievance redress mechanism The Prevention of Corruption Act (PCA), the key legislation which defines what constitutes corruption and prescribes penalties for corruption-related offences, is set to be amended by Parliament. The proposed Bill, now before a select committee of the Rajya Sabha, includes several contentious amendments that are likely to...

-The Indian Express Why the revival of exports matters as much as rains for Indian farmers. It is generally held that the woes of Indian farmers today have had largely to do with extreme weather events. The southwest monsoon failed in both 2014 and 2015. Besides, we had extensive crop damage from unseasonal rain and hailstorms over large parts of north, west and central India in March 2015. From this also follows the...

-The Financial Express In a drought period, its job-insurance function critical Never perhaps in its decade of existence has the rural employment guarantee programme —MGNREGA—been more relevant than it is now. After two weak monsoons, the critically low water levels in reservoirs have resulted in drought-like conditions in large parts of the country. Critics of the scheme would argue that even in its best days, the programme hasn’t accounted for more than...

-Business Today The elixir of life has been the subject of a dispute of life-threatening proportions between industry and communities. When a life sustaining resource is in short supply, conflicting claims over it are bound to arise. Water conflicts span the gamut of fights, from neighbours in water starved colonies to those between states over river waters. But perhaps the most vital current conflict over water is that between agriculTure and industry.   "Around...

-The Times of India Hyderabad: Acute shortage of fodder triggered by prolonged heat wave across Telangana is driving thousands of farmers to sell off their cattle. The Telangana Goshala Federation, which works for the rescue and protection of cattle in the state through its network of 120 'goshalas' spread over all the 10 districts, including 41 in Hyderabad, said 2.15 lakh cattle were sold away by farmers in the last one month...