-Economic and Political Weekly     Sustained and focused efforts have to be made by the Tamil Nadu state government to provide relief and rehabilitation to the drought affected people of the state. S Rajendran (myrajendran@gmail.com) is with the Department of Economics, Periyar University, Salem, Tamil Nadu. Due to the failure of the north-east monsoon in December 2013, Tamil Nadu is witnessing drought like conditions this year, leading to poor agricultural productivity, rural distress,...

-NDTV After the Intelligence Bureau controversially concluded that Greenpeace India is "a threat to national economic security", the government asked for tighter controls on moving funds from abroad into the NGO's accounts. NDTV has learnt that one of the blacklisted foreign donors, the U.S.-based Climate Works Foundation, has helped fund projects run by the government in Gujarat, the home state of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The Intelligence Bureau said in its report...

-Down to Earth There is speculation that provisions relating to 'fair compensation' may be tinkered with The Modi-government's move to amend the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement (the new land acquisition Act) has drawn flak from the country's largest farmers' organisation, Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU). The law was implemented from January this year. In a press statement issued Wednesday, BKU chief Rakesh Tikait said media reports...

-The Hindu   A welter of problems may be in store for the country These are testing times for the Narendra Modi government in the farm and food sector: the south-west (June-September) monsoon is delayed, deficient and weak; kharif sowing, much of which is rain-fed, is lagging by over 17 per cent over last year; rising food prices are pushing up inflation and pulling down growth. Right now the prices of only perishable...

-The Hindu   Adilabad (Andhra Pradesh): Turmeric sowing has begun in Adilabad, but farmers are anxious about the price which their produce will attract eventually. "The market trend is not healthy so far as the price of turmeric is concerned and this could add to the problems of farmers, who are already reeling under the effect of the heavy loss they suffered owing to the dismally low price last season," says K. Narasimham...