-The Times of India NEW delhi: In a bid to ensure higher returns for labourers in MGNREGA, the Union rural development ministry has again asked the finance ministry to index the wages under the job guarantee scheme to Consumer Price Index (rural - CPI-R) in place of the current CPI (agricultural labourers - CPI-AL). The RD ministry has argued that CPI (R) better reflects the present consumption pattern among rural households unlike...

-IndiaToday.in New delhi: All India Kisan Sangharsh Coordination Committee (AIKSCC), a coalition of 193 farmers' organisations from across the country, will lobby for the enactment of two private bills - Farmers' Freedom from Debt Bill and Guaranteed Fair and Remunerative Prices Bill - to ensure comprehensive debt relief to farmers and remunerative prices for the farm produce in the forthcoming session of the Parliament. The Bills, submitted by Parliamentarians Raju Shetti and...

-Livemint.com Farmer unions are divided over whether to inconvenience cities with their protests, and as a result the strikes have been limited to a few regions in Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana and Maharashtra New delhi: The ongoing protests by farmers attempting to restrict the supply of milk and fresh produce to cities has highlighted differences between farmer unions on modes of protest, especially on the question of whether to risk rattling urban...

-PTI New delhi: The attachments of over 780 benami assets, worth crores, risk being invalidated because of the government's failure to create a designated adjudicating authority in the 19 months since enforcing a stringent law against black money and corruption. The Centre had amended the Benami Property Transaction Act of 1988 and enforced the tighter version on November 1, 2016, days before Prime Minister Narendra Modi demonetised 1,000-rupee and 500-rupee notes. Section 7...

-The Hindu Business Line Middlemen can hike prices but producers lose margins Ahmedabad/ New delhi: With the sharp increase in fuel prices punching holes in agricultural incomes, a section of farmers are reviewing the mechanisation options. Diesel prices are up one-fourth over corresponding time last year. "The cost including transportation and pump-sets operation works out to about 25 per cent of the cost of production in various crops. Fuel costs are going up...