-Livemint.com The focus should be more on making the prime minister’s crop insurance scheme a success than demanding farm loans waivers from banks Last week, the Indian National Congress at the Maharashtra assembly submitted a breach of privilege notice against State Bank of India chairman Arundhati Bhattacharya for “insulting farmers and the House” by her remarks on farm loan waiver. The leader of the opposition in the state assembly, Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil,...

-The Hindu On the tenth anniversary of the historic passage of the Forest Rights Act, tribal resistance to defend their rights is growing even as government after government tries to dilute its provisions On this day 10 years ago the historic Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act was passed in the Lok Sabha. Its conception and passage was the result of the decades of struggles and...

-The Hindu Only Chandrababu Naidu and Shivraj Singh Chauhan will remain members Bihar’s Nitish Kumar, Tripura’s Manik Sarkar and Puducherry’s V. Narayanasamy have refused the Narendra Modi government’s invitation to join a sub-committee of Chief Ministers on digitisation and cashless transactions. The panel is tasked with suggesting possible ways to ease problems in the wake of the Centre’s demonetisation decision, sources in the Janata Dal (United), the CPI(M) and the Congress confirmed. The panel...

-Livemint.com Nearly 150 organizations protested in Delhi, warning against govt’s approval of commercialization of the genetically modified mustard New Delhi: Nearly 150 organizations from across India protested on Tuesday at Jantar Mantar in Delhi, warning the central government of a stir against it if it approves commercialization of genetically modified (GM) mustard. GM mustard has been developed by Delhi University’s Centre for Genetic Manipulation of Crop Plants. On 5 September, the genetic engineering...

-Business Standard Instead of addressing systemic problems in agriculture, farm politics in the state is about how much money the government can offer the farmer as a dole The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), led by Parkash Singh Badal and son Sukhbir, was in a dilemma a year before the 2012 Assembly elections in Punjab. The Akalis had ruled Punjab since 2007 but no party had ever returned to power for a second...