-Frontline The new crop insurance scheme introduced by the NDA government in an election year does not provide for a comprehensive coverage of all crops, against all forms of damage and at all stages of the crop cycle. IN AN election year, it is but natural that incumbent governments will introduce welfare policies and schemes. But the problem is that distribution of such largesse in a neoliberal dispensation can only be...
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India pushes GM’s frontier again with mustard, but what’s inside it? -Zia Haq
-Hindustan Times In Bollywood romcoms, mustard fields glowing iridescent yellow are an oft-used backdrop for romantic songs. Remember the iconic 1995 hit, Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge Mustard, as it were, is an onscreen metaphor for vigour and youthful passion. However, looked through a farm scientist’s lens, the traditional Indian mustard isn’t genetically very impressive. It is only half as robustly growing as its east European cousins. Low yields mean India has to...
More »'Eggs not needed in mid-day meals'
-The Times of India Ahmedabad: In response to a public interest litigation (PIL) asking for implementation of National Food Security Act in Gujarat, the state government has submitted to the Supreme Court that there is no need to provide eggs to children, as part of the mid-day meal scheme in the state. The PIL has been filed by NGO Swaraj Abhiyan, which also asked that milk and eggs should be provided...
More »Two cheers for jobs scheme
-The Hindu Business Line It has worked as a rural safety net. But the Centre has other budgetary priorities A decade after the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme came into force, the NDA government has come around to accepting its usefulness — and that, in a difficult agriculture year. Last February, the Prime Minister disparaged the programme for merely digging pits. But only a few days ago, the finance minister...
More »Child stunting declines, but still high, data show -Rukmini S & Samarth Bansal
-The Hindu As of 2005-06, India had 62 million stunted children, accounting for a third of the world’s burden of stunting. Indian states have seen some improvements in child nutrition over the last decade, the first official data in over a decade shows, but over one in three children is still stunted, and over one in five underweight. As of 2005-6, India had 62 million stunted children, accounting for a third of the...
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