-The Tribune Contract farming is a much-needed vehicle to bring new crops, technologies, and markets to farmers. However, the new model Act 2018 opens up agricultural markets to contracting agencies without adequate safeguards for farmers. The FIRst attempt at reforms in agricultural markets was made by the union government with the design of a model Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC) Act in 2003 which provided for new market channels for farmers and...

-Hindustan Times State food minister Saryu Roy said the state’s recommendation for cancelling the pilot project for direct transfer of food subsidy will be forwarded to the Centre this week. Ranchi: The BJP ruled Jharkhand government has decided to ask the Centre to withdraw its pilot project for direct transfer of food subsidy into account of beneficiaries in place of ration as it was causing immense trouble to the poor and was...

-The Hindu New policy hopes to expand their reach and spread Birgaon: When the lights went on in Birgaon for the FIRst time on a chilly winter evening late last December, it allowed the government to announce in April this year that every village in India now had electricity. Every home in Birgaon actually has power, thanks to a solar microgrid set up in the village centre and wired into every home. By...

-Press release by NREGA Sangharsh Morcha, dated 19 May, 2018 Yesterday’s much awaited Supreme Court judgement in the Swaraj Abhiyan PIL has let down millions of National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) workers - the most marginalised citizens of India who need employment and social security.  The Court has ignored the wealth of evidence against the brazen violations of the legal entitlements of NREGA workers and has allowed the Central Government...

-Scroll.in The committee goes on to list the ‘basic elements’ that make an individual indigenous to Assam. The transfer of agricultural land should be restricted to people indigenous to the state, a committee appointed by the Assam government in February 2017 for “ensuring the protection of land rights of indigenous people” has recommended in a report submitted in January. The Bharatiya Janata Party government in the state has said that it...