-Business Standard Spread of irrigation, rise in drought-tolerant seeds have come as saviour, says study The southwest monsoon might have made a good start, but its future looks bleak, with many models predicting a let up in showers around the first week of July. The picture for north-west India, the country's premier paddy-producing region, looks gloomier with most weather forecasts predicting below-normal rains in the region this year. However, how far will...
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Is the MGNREGA being set up for failure? -G Sampath & Rukmini S
-The Hindu The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employee Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGA) has generated more rural employment than any other government scheme or private initiative in the history of independent India. At the same time, it has also generated a great deal of controversy over its merits and demerits. It would be fair to say that the policy establishment in the country right now is not favourably disposed towards the MGNREGA, with the...
More »Forest dwellers see red over denial of rights -Adepu Mahender
-The Hans India Warangal: Hunger and starvation coupled with denial of rights provide a fertile ground for the growth of Left Wing Extremism (LWE). The flustered forest-dwellers of the four districts – Adilabad, Karimnagar, Warangal and Khammam — who had been struggling against the might of the State, represented by a despotic forest department, appears to be losing their direction for the means of livelihood as the Forest Rights Act remained a ‘paper...
More »India’s vast, rich forests could feed the world -Prasun Sonwalkar
-Hindustan Times London: With the global population expected to touch 9 billion by 2050, food from forests in India and elsewhere have potential to address needs of nutrition and food security at a time when the limits of boosting agricultural production are becoming increasingly clear. A new report produced by an international panel led by Bhaskar Vira, an expert based at the University of Cambridge, says that despite impressive productivity increases, there...
More »After Sonia and Rahul, former CIC lashes out at Modi govt for 'crippling' RTI Act
-FirstPost.com Former Central Information Commissioner (CIC) Shailesh Gandhi on Monday lashed out at the Centre for allegedly rendering the Right to Information (RTI) Act "dysfunctional" by taking retrogressive steps. In an open letter written to a section of the media, Gandhi said, "the present Prime Minister has taken preemptive action by not appointing a Chief Information Commissioner at all to render it dysfunctional." Gandhi, a noted RTI activist from Mumbai, was appointed to...
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