-The Economic Times Last month, union tribal Minister Jual Oram told the Lok Sabha that India is making "satisfactory progress" implementing the " Forest Rights Act" (FRA). However, a closer look at the numbers he submitted in the house indicates otherwise. The FRA is one of the three rights-based legislations passed by UPA1 -- along with the National Rural Employment Guarentee Act (NREGA) and the Right to Information ( RTI) Act. It...

-Economic and Political Weekly   The emphasis on use of digital technologies to bridge the "rural-urban gap" in the union budget is limited to high talk and minimal allocations. The need for a more comprehensive and peoples' participation-oriented rural action plan should have been the focus while setting sectoral allocations, but that is not to be in this mid-year budget. Vipul Mudgal (vipulmudgal@gmail.com) heads the Inclusive Media for Change project at the Centre...

-Down to Earth Civil society calls for pesticide-free, organic food under government programmes for children while Bihar focuses on building new kitchens in government schools A year after 23 school children in Bihar's Saran district died of insecticide poisoning after consuming food served under Mid Day Meal (MDM) Scheme, government agencies seem to have forgotten the serious concern over handling and banning of hazardous chemicals that the tragedy raised. The children of Dharmasati-Gandaman...

-The Economic Times NEW DELHI: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley announced a price stabilisation fund, steps to set up a national market for farm produce, irrigation schemes, new agricultural universities as well as initiatives to increase warehousing and rural internet connectivity. Jaitley said food price volatility was a big concern, and announced a Rs 500 crore fund for farm price stabilization. He said the government wanted agriculture to grow although weak rainfall was a concern. Please...

-The Times of India RAMGARH: Residents of Jameera and Bahatu in Ramgarh have a reason to cheer with public health engineering department (PHED) putting an end to their age-old water woes. The department has recently installed a solar energy-operated water pump in the region that can function without manual intervention. The pilot project, currently the talk of the town, will relieve the villagers of the day-in and day-out struggle with the rusty...