-The Hindu Most of the earnings of the average farm household were spent in meeting consumption expenditures. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley announced a slew of measures in the Union Budget 2017 to boost the agriculture sector. Higher agricultural credit, higher allocation for irrigation projects, a crop insurance scheme and increased allocations for MGNREGA to dig farm ponds were among the measures announced on February 1. But will these help attain the goal...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: The demonetisation-hit economy, which is expected to limp back to normalcy by the middle of this calendar year, may report a GDP growth rate of around 7 per cent for 2016-17, according to North Block economists. Of course, like all cautious economists, North Block's tribe of coffee swigging GDP forecasters and policy sherpas will add a ceteris paribus (all other things being equal), the Latin term that the followers...

-The Hindu Only science can ensure commercial viability and protection of indigenous breeds. With the Tamil Nadu Governor clearing an ordinance on jallikattu, the question is whether the sport will help preserve indigenous breeds of cattle. The proponents of jallikattu say that first, if the sport is banned, owners of indigenous bulls may no longer find it worth preserving the indigenous variants. Second, they say it is the ‘untamed’ bull that is...

-TheWire.in Data compiled by the mines ministry notes several thousand hectares of mineable area has potentially been prevented from being auctioned, saving the companies that own them money and costing the exchequer in terms of revenue foregone. New Delhi: The Narendra Modi government changed regulations meant for protection of tribal rights, forests and environment in order to ensure that more than 130 mines do not face fresh auctions and are instead retained...

-CounterView.net A new report, “Promise and Performance – Ten Years of the Forest Rights Act (FRA)”, released at a recent national convention in Delhi, has revealed that less than 5% of rights out of a total of over 200 million tribals and other traditional forest dwellers for about 34.6 million hectares (ha) in India has been so far recognized. The report, released as part of the Community Forest Rights Learning and Advocacy...