-IPSNews.net NEW DELHI: Women account for less than half of India’s population but their participation in the workforce is way below that of men. They account for 27 per cent of the workforce. If – and it is a big if – their number were to increase to the same level as men in the workforce, the country’s output of good and services would expand by 27 per cent, argues Christine...

-The Hindu The Compensatory Afforestation Bill has raised significant money, which must be used to restore existing forests rather than on artificial plantations On Parliament’s wooden desks, a Bill is knocking. The Compensatory Afforestation Fund Bill seeks to govern how forests will be raised, cut, and resurrected across India. It will be looking at how a fund of Rs. 38,000 crore, collected from cutting down forests, is to be used. Meant initially just...

-The Hindu Ignoring the groundswell of public opinion against a resumption of bauxite mining, the Andhra Pradesh government has been taking concrete steps to start mineral exploration in the Eastern Ghats. The Maoists have used this opportunity to try winning support of the tribals. Ever since the Communist Party of India (Maoist) [CPI (Maoist)] made a tactical retreat from the undivided Andhra Pradesh in 2004, engagements between the naxalites and the State...

-Deccan Herald Twenty years, 35 villages and over 10 lakh surviving trees. Harshavardhan Sheelavant narrates a community initiative in Dharwad district that has converted hundreds of acres of fallow land into green orchards and transformed the lives of farmers. It was another monsoon day without rains. But the dry spell didn’t quench the spirit of residents of Belligatti village in Dharwad district who assembled near a small hillock on the outskirts of...

-Deccan Herald Contrasting fortunes: One section of Maharashtra's tillers revels, one despairs Hyderabad: Millet growing villages in four mandals of Zaheerabad of Medak district have reported no farmer suicide even as the district accounted for 30 deaths every month and the state of Telangana recorded 1,400 suicides by farmers in distress. Medak district, which reported 145 deaths this year, so far reflects the hopelessness in agriculture sector.  It is indeed amazing to see...