-The Economic Times The Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers Act (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006, or the Forest Rights Act (FRA), is among India's most important legislation since 2005, along with the Right to Information Act and the Right to Education Act. FRA, which was passed in Parliament in December 2006 and which became operational in January 2008, recognises the rights of forest dwellers, including Scheduled Tribes and others,...

-Livemint.com Government forecaster India Meteorological Department (IMD) says rainfall was 4% below the long-period average for the country as a WHOle New Delhi: After a slowdown in most parts of the country in the past week, the monsoon is expected to see a pickup in north-west and central India in the first week of August. Government forecaster India Meteorological Department (IMD) on Thursday said rainfall was 4% below the long-period average (the...

-The Hindu Business Line The Government has several short and long-term strategies to achieve self-sufficiency WHO can deny that pulses are at the core of the average Indian diet? Therefore, the NDA government’s multi-pronged short-term and long-term strategies to meet the growing consumption of pulses in the country — from importing to increasing production through new technologies, and making cultivation attractive to farmers — is to be welcomed. In fact, pulses play...

-The Indian Express The Rajasthan government, too, is providing a subsidy of Rs 2500 per quintal for certified seeds, besides a 50 per cent subsidy on micronutrient and bio-pesticides. Jaipur: Farmers in Rajasthan are looking towards pulses to reap, what seems for now, a double dividend from good southwest monsoon rains as well as remunerative prices. Sowing of kharif pulses — mainly moong, moth and urad — has already been completed in 22.75...

-The Indian Express The current bill does not take into account any of the criticism voiced against an earlier version, proposed under the UPA government in 2013; it continues to ignore the Forest Rights Act. A recent controversial bill that outlines a framework for the utilisation of compensatory afforestation funds is being strongly contested and challenged by civil society actors. It raises important questions that are fundamentally connected to forests: WHOse...