-Livemint.com From 14 March the farmer organisations will carry out a public consultation and audit of the MSP system in mandis in eight states and raise the demand to make MSPs a legal entitlement for farmers New Delhi: Holding the government accountable for its budget promise of ensuring minimum support prices (MSP) to farmers, a host of farmer organisations on Wednesday flagged that the winter harvest of gram, lentils and mustard, which...

-The Hindu Business Line ‘Increased participation of women in economic activity can boost economy’ New Delhi: When the theme for 2017 International Women’s Day was set as ‘Be Bold for Change’, little did anyone imagine that later that year Hollywood actress Ashley Judd would come out and speak up against film production and distribution house Miramax co-founder Harvey Weinstein who had sexually harassed her in the early years of her career. Judd proved...

-Down to Earth In Odisha, both these commodities are nationalised, thereby curtailing the rights of the people on them As the harvesting season for bamboo and kendu leaf approaches in Odisha, tension is building between the forest-dependent communities and the forest department. In Kalahandi district, around 100 Gram Sabhas are planning to assert their rights over bamboo and kendu leaf despite legal curtails. “In Kalahandi Jangal Manch meeting on February 28, we decided...

-TheWire.in Examples from Jharkhand, Karnataka and other places make a strong case for kitchen gardens in more parts of the country. Pali Biruli lives in Gondamara, a tribal village in Saraikela district of Jharkhand. When we stepped into the courtyard of her home to have a glass of water, the beauty of the surrounding greenery surprised us. Within a small place. she and her family members had managed to grow papaya, mango,...

-TheWire.in At a time when food has provided so much grist for the identitarian and nativist mill, it is important to infuse into public discourse a modicum of reason through facts. For long, India has been mythologised as a vegetarian, and particularly beef-eschewing, society. Such a representation has further been ideologically explained (and justified) by a wide range of scholars, politicians and popular discourse by constructing India as a society primarily shaped...