-Scroll.in At the heart of the problem is a discrepancy between two laws on rights for Adivasis to the bamboo growing on their traditional forestlands. Across the world, taxonomists have classified bamboo as a grass. But under Indian law, it was treated as a tree. This definition has long given state forest departments monopolistic control over the valuable natural resource. On November 23, the central government loosened this grip by amending the...

-Press Note from NREGA Sangharsh Morcha Since the start of the FY 18, we have pointed out the willful misrepresentation of delays in wage payments, incomplete calculation of the full extent of compensation due to workers and the under provisioning of budgets for the program. In August, we released a report by independent researchers, that used the Ministry of Rural Development’s own data to show how the Central Government is deliberately...

-IANS NEW DELHI: As many as 19,732 projects as part of the village development plan under the Saansad Adarsh Gram Yojana (SAGY) have been completed and another 7,204 were under implementation, an official statement said on Tuesday. The objective of the programme is improving Access to public services and community action for social and economic development in the selected gram panchayats so they become role models worth emulation by neighboring gram panchayats. "An...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Thirty-two of India's top universities and institutions of higher learning, including IITs, IIMs, Jawaharlal Nehru University and Delhi University, have together filled up barely 16% of the minimum quota for people with disabilities, a survey has revealed. Exposing the appalling failure of the government in implementing the 1995 Disability Act — which fixed a minimum 3% quota — the National Centre for Promotion of Employment for...

-The Hindu Business Line Procurement of the excess output vis-a-vis a normal year, rather than open-ended purchase, is a viable option A bountiful harvest that implies an increase in output may not always increase the nominal income of the farming sector, which is subject to the behaviour of input and more particularly output prices, which may sometimes move sharply. There can, therefore, be years in which there is a sudden and sharp...