-Livemint.com Politics and bad economics have LED to the current agricultural crisis in India With around 65% of India’s agriculture depending on rain and more than half the population on agriculture, too little or too much rain is always a harbinger of trouble. On occasions like these, accusations of the government of the day being anti-farmer replace all other charges in polemics. Something similar has happened this year, as erratic weather has...
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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 »Records may not show, but women farmers dying too -Priyanka Kakodkar
-The Times of India AKOLA: For the last 23 years, Rukhmabai Rathod had run her 6-acre farm virtually single-handedly. After her husband's death in 1992, the uneducated but determined woman took charge. She decided what to sow, how much to spend and stood her ground with banks and creditors. "She was anguthachaap but she understood everything," says her brother-in-law Babulal Rathod from the Kazadeshwar village in Vidarbha's Akola district. "I didn't think...
More »11 trade unions plan strike on 26 May - Prashant K Nanda
-Livemint.com The strike that was announced on Friday is to protest what unions calLED the anti-labour policies of the BJP-LED ruling coalition New Delhi: Eleven trade unions plan to go on strike on 26 May, the first anniversary of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-LED National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government, to protest what they calLED the anti-labour policies of the ruling coalition. The strike was announced on Friday as three ministers met national...
More »How Bihar mended its ways -Jean Drèze
-The Hindu The State’s recent experience shows that even the worst-governed States can reform their public distribution system and make good use of the National Food Security Act. “In Lalu’s days we had a lal card [BPL card], with Nitish we got coupons, and when Manjhi came we got this new ration card”. This is how Anuj Paswan, a Dalit resident of Tetar village in Gaya district, sees recent changes in Bihar’s...
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