-TheNewsMinute.com Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s advocacy of Zero Budget Natural Farming comes after the controversial farm laws were repealed. But further critical examination is crucial. In a televised address to the nation on the morning of November 19th, Prime Minister Narendra Modi sought forgiveness from farmers and the entire nation “with all sincerity of purpose and from the bottom of my heart” for aggressively and undemocratically promoting three controversial farm laws. He...

-TheWire.in The ‘Goat Bank of Karkheda’, started by agriculturist and educationist Naresh Deshmukh in Akola district, has helped many women overcome their debt-ridden life. Mumbai: Pratibha Patil’s family has come a long way. Just two years ago, as landless agricultural labourers in Sangavi Mohadi village in Akola, Patil and her husband toiled for over nine hours on the land of the rich to earn their collective sum of Rs 350 per day....

-Down to Earth From floodplain identification to flood hazard map to availability of rain gauges, CAG report points out shortcomings in Kerala’s flood response Could poor response on part of the Kerala government have caused the massive floods of 2018 in the state? A recent report by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has pointed at severe lapses on the part of the government in planning, capacity building, flood forecasting and dam...

-IndiaSpend.com Punjab has seen more than 71,000 incidents of paddy straw burning this year, negating hundreds of crores spent on subsidies on straw management machines and awareness campaigns. Experts say farmers need financial incentives to take up stubble management, and must be encouraged to shift away from paddy cultivation. Chandigarh: Harbhajan Singh returned to Sadhanpur village in east Punjab's SAS Nagar district from two days off over Diwali, to find the paddy...

-The Hindu Public choice refers to an economic approach towards the study of politics. American Nobel laureate James Buchanan, a prominent member of the Virginia school of political economy, characterised the public choice approach to politics as the study of “politics without romance.” Public choice theorists assume that politicians and bureaucrats who run the government of a country are self-interested individuals who primarily look after their own selfish interests. This is in...