The government has launched a relief package, which will directly address the problems of the coffee growers, especially the small growers. Commerce and industry minister today flagged off the implementation of the `Coffee Debt Relief Package, 2010' by distributing the first batch of certificates to those small coffee growers whose loans have been waived under this package. This is the first time that the Government of India has come forward with...

The state government has decided to return fertile land that had been notified for a special economic zone (SEZ) by Bharat Forge, close on the heels of Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s remark that land acquisition must be done in a manner that does not cause loss of large tracts of productive agricultural land. She has also called for a humane approach while acquiring land. "The decision to return 583 hectares of...

Under ideal conditions, grain storage options in India are built up from the buffer stock strategies. These, in turn, are derived from fluctuations in grain output and the need to ride through, say, two bad years. To the needs of the required buffer are added the demands from operational requirements and those of grains in transit. Once upon a time, there used to be controversies concerning why should we separately account...

KEY TRENDS   • Section 105 of the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in the Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013, which provides for excluding 13 Central legislation, including Land Acquisition (Mines) Act 1885, Atomic Energy Act, 1962, Railway Act 1989, National Highways Act 1956 and Metro Railways (Construction of Works) Act, 1978, from its purview, has been amended for payment of compensation with rigours $ • The amendments have now...

KEY TRENDS   • Maternal Mortality Ratio for India was 370 in 2000, 286 in 2005, 210 in 2010, 158 in 2015 and 145 in 2017. Therefore, the MMRatio for the country decreased by almost 61 percent between 2000 and 2017 *14    • As per the NSS 71st round, among rural females aged 5-29 years, the main reasons for dropping out/ discontinuance were: engagement in domestic activities, not interested in education, financial constraints and marriage. Among rural males aged...