-IANS GURUGRAM (Haryana): The Punjab and Haryana high court has issued an order, directing all societies (RWAs and others) registered under Haryana Registration and Regulation of Society Act, 2012, to provide information to public under provisions of the RTI Act, 2005. According to the order, all documents filed by a registered society with the district registrar under 2012 Act are public documents and can be accessed by any citizen under provisions of...

-Down to Earth Farmer organisations, companies say concerns not addressed The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India's (FSSAI's) organic food labelling policy has created an adverse reaction at the ground level. The idea was introduced on July 1, 2018 to support farmers and help consumers identify authentic organic produce, but labelling has pushed many farmers out of business. The certification process is tedious and costly, and the FSSAI implemented in despite farmer...

-IANS New Delhi: The Election Commission (EC) should treat social media like any other media and all rules that apply to the media during the model code of conduct should also apply to social media, former Chief Election Commissioner S.Y. Quraishi said on Friday. Quraishi was speaking at an event where a group of former bureaucrats and organisations, like Common Cause, Free Internet Foundation, Association for Democratic Reforms and Free Software Movement...

-The Times of India PILIBHIT: Raising concern over depleting groundwater, State Wetland Authority (SWA) has decided to ban the cultivation of summer paddy that survives only on the groundwater.   According to an estimate of the state agriculture department, summer paddy — the transplantation of which has already been started — is produced in around 3.5 lakh hectares in more than 20 districts of western UP stretched up to the Tarai region. The decision...

-IndiaWaterPortal.org Calculating water availability and crop budgeting can prevent over-extraction of groundwater and mounting farm debt. At 42 years, Bhagwat Ghagare seems young. But he is old enough to have seen his village prosper and decline many times. Farming had traditionally been small and distress migration rampant at Kumbharwadi in Ahmednagar district of Maharashtra. Between 1998 and 2002, a non-profit organisation, Watershed Organisation Trust (WOTR), initiated a work related to rainwater harvesting...