-The Hindu The government's reasoning that the land ordinance was meant to extend the benefit of the new law to various types of land acquisitions left uncovered so far is disingenuous Democracy is an exercise in public reason. Democratically elected governments cannot simply throw around the weight of their majority. They have a responsibility to offer good reasons for their decisions. And they must do so publicly. That is why we follow...

-The Hindu Business Line To buck migration, the Barefoot College has turned to mothers and grandmothers to light up villages Satabhaya village, in Kendrapada district of Odisha, is barely 65 km from the district headquarters, but it can be called remote by any yardstick. Located inside the Bhitarkanika wildlife sanctuary, it remains deprived of basic facilities such as roads and electricity. Abutted by the Bay of Bengal, the village is the only one...

-The Hindu Business Line Hyderabad: Scientists and researchers struck a note of concern over the projected impact of climate change on Indian agriculture, especially coastal agriculture, and livestock at the just-concluded international conference on Bio-resource and Stress Management here. Laxman Singh Rathore, director general of Indian Meteorological Department, set the tone for the discussions by pointing out that mean warming in India is likely to be in the range of 1.7 to...

-The New Indian Express   The latest data from the World Bank shows that around 60.3 per cent of India's land area is agricultural. India Brand Equity Foundation, a trust established by the ministry of commerce and industry, confirms this. At 157.35 million hectares, India holds the second largest Agricultural land, next only to the US. This should set at rest the fears that have been raised in the aftermath of the...

-The Indian Express It's likely that India's crop production this year will be lower compared to 2013-14, given deficient rains both in the southwest (June-September) and northeast (October-December) monsoons impacting kharif as well as rabi plantings. But that by itself needn't be cause for concern. We have seen one-off farm output declines even in 2009-10, 2004-05 and 2002-03, which were also drought years. What should worry us more, instead, is the...