-The Business Standard Chhattisgarh proves no cash transfer or UID is needed to make PDS work Viewed from a ration shop in Surguja in the largely poor tribal north of Chhattisgarh, the arguments for and against the food security Bill seem way off the mark. We had travelled there to see first-hand Chhattisgarh's much-celebrated transformation of its broken, corrupt public distribution system (a recent survey found that wastage of PDS grain dropped...

-Tehelka Close to 30 percent of forests have been converted to Chir Pine monocultures displacing grazing rights of several communities like the Gaddis and Gujjars. There is no quantitative assessement of the impact of loss on people's lives The Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers Act, or Recognition of Forest Rights Act - commonly known as the Forest Rights Act (FRA) was passed by Parliament in 2006 to address historical injustices...

-The Hindu ADILABAD: Many in the field are viewing it as a retro step but, the aboriginal Kolam farmers of Birsaipet-Kolamguda in Utnoor mandal in Adilabad opted to fall back on their ancient wisdom with regard to irrigating crops. Instead of going in for the individualistic bore well as a source of irrigation, the 35 Kolam families in this village decided to dig five open wells to collectively irrigate the 250...

-PTI AHMEDABAD: A new hybrid seed variety of maize has been developed, which has a potential to more than double the crop production in tribal belts of the state has been developed, according to an official at Anand Agriculture University (AAU). The new variety -- Gujarat Anand Yellow Hybrid Maize-I (GAYHM)-- is suitable for sowings during kharif season under rain fed conditions in North and central Gujarat - a maize growing beltin...

-The Business Standard It will make the coercive powers of the land acquisition law irrelevant, though including it in the central Bill would be unconstitutional The proposal to amend the central Land Acquisition Bill to provide for leasing of land rather than acquiring it is just not constitutionally feasible. Land is a state subject and the Centre cannot legislate on leasing at all. But as an idea it is great and should...