-Reuters   India's monsoon rains revived in rice, oilseeds, lentils and cereals growing areas over the past week, weather office sources said on Thursday, snapping a two-week long lull and improving output prospects for the summer sown crops. Last year, rainfall was 26 percent below normal in the week to Aug 11 after a weak start, but it picked up during the four-month season and ended normal. It is expected that this year's rains...

The Union Government has announced that it would bring the Lokpal Bill in the monsoon session of Parliament which is expected to pass it in the winter session. The all-party meeting held on the Lokpal issue damned the civil society and passed a one-line resolution: “The all-party meeting agreed that the government should bring before the next session of Parliament a strong and effective Lokpal Bill following established procedures.” The...

The Land Acquisition Bill is a key issue before Parliament this monsoon session. A look at history would be useful. The concern with the extent and spread of agricultural land is not new. But the way in which it is being addressed certainly is. Much of the criticism of the Land Acquisition Bill has been about the provisions to safeguard irrigated, double cropped land. It is true these provisions will be...

IF YOU walked down the streets of Jantar Mantar in New Delhi between 3-5 August, you would see what TV cameras aren’t putting out on primetime news. Thousands of farmers from Jhabua in Madhya Pradesh to Rohtak in Haryana. On protest. Against the systematic grabbing of their land by various state governments across the political spectrum. On one side of the road, on large green carpets, are about 3,000 farmers,...

-The Business Standard   Amid the ongoing debate in Parliament on inflation and the government’s inability to tame it, food inflation, which had seen a dip in the past two weeks, increased to 8.04 per cent for the week ended July 23. In the previous week, food inflation had fallen to a 29-month low at 7.33 per cent. All major items in the food basket recorded a rise in prices, from vegetables...