-The Indian Express The Bill provides for “surveillance, inspection, operation and maintenance of specified dams for prevention of dam failure related disasters and to provide for institutional mechanism to ensure their safe functioning”. New Delhi: WHEN THE government introduced the Dam Safety Bill, 2018 in Lok Sabha last week, BJD floor leader Bhartruhari Mahtab questioned Parliament’s competence to do so. Days later, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K Palaniswami wrote to the...

-Livemint.com Loan waivers and the promise to raise MSP cannot solve the problem The victory of Congress party in the recent assembly elections of Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan has brought the agrarian crisis in rural areas to the centre of political debate. While there are several factors in election victories, the severity of the agrarian unrest was surely a major factor. While there is consensus that the incumbent Bharatiya Janata Party...

-The Telegraph Market prices too low, and trucking product to procurement centres not viable Bolpur (Birbhum) and Calcutta: A paddy challenge has sprouted for Bengal’s farmers with market rates dipping and sales to the state government at the minimum support price running into hurdles. Sources said the price for a quintal of kharif (monsoon) paddy was hovering between Rs 1,450 and Rs 1,500 in the market, which leaves them with hardly any profit...

-PTI BHOPAL: Congress president Rahul Gandhi's promise of a farm loan waiver if his party is voted to power in Madhya Pradesh seems to have helped it reap a rich harvest of votes and end 15-year-long wait for power. In the wake of Rahul Gandhi's populist promise made during campaigning for the November 28 polls, cultivators did not sell their paddy produce and stocked them to reap the benefit of the promised...

-The Times of India Blog Prakash Singh, former IPS officer who also headed the Border Security Force, dealt with naxalism in its early stages. He continues to research the movement. In a conversation with Sugandha Indulkar, he shares his idea of urban naxalism. * What is urban naxalism? Urban naxalism, in simplest terms, implies naxalism as practised in urban areas by different shades of intellectuals – lawyers, journalists, writers, doctors, professors or people...