-The Hindustan Times Recently, at a rally of gram panchayat chiefs, agriculture minister Sharad Pawar told the audience, “Improving the well-being of farmers is difficult unless agriculture sheds some of its population. At least one member from the farmer’s family should seek livelihood opportunities outside agriculture.” He has often made this appeal to farmers in Maharashtra, pointing out how rich industrial countries have a small proportion of their labour force in...

-The Indian Express An intriguing paradox of contemporary Indian politics has been insufficiently noted: corporate India finances India’s elections, substantially if not wholly, but it is unable to determine election outcomes. Money matters, but it is not always electorally decisive. The recent Uttar Pradesh elections provide the clearest illustration of this proposition. As is well known, the Congress, BJP and BSP were all better financed than the SP which, especially after the...

-The Hindu The outcome document or the Rio+20 text — adopted after an informal and protracted debate by 191 member-nations, — took shape on the basis of consensus for its adaptation on Friday, even as the leading spirits behind the document conceded that it was a “compromise.” Yet the much fought-over document, ‘Future we want,’ carries hope for the humanity and an assurance not to go back on the principles agreed upon...

The Conflict of Interest Bill introduced in the Rajya Sabha is a welcome step to control the grey areas in which “public private partnerships” are conducted. AMONG the many things that have proliferated in the economic boom of the brash new India is conflict of interest. So widespread, comprehensive and many-tentacled has this feature become that it is often no longer even recognised to exist, much less to be a...

-PTI With key UPA ally Trinamool Congress averse to FDI in retail, finance minister Pranab Mukherjee today said the Centre is trying to build a consensus on it and other contentious issues. "We are working to build a policy consensus on a number of pending issues such as introduction of Goods and Services Tax, further Liberalisation of FDI, including in retail, and deepening and strengthening of financial markets for long term investments,"...