-TheWire.in To oppose the forest department’s plan to limit open grazing, the pastoral community is formally pursuing their collective land rights through the Forest Rights Act. The sun has not yet decided to rise. It’s pitch black out but a group of Maldharis has already assembled for the last session of this year’s milking competition. Their massive buffalos are majestically adorned with intricate garlands and colourful necklaces. The panch (group of five...

-The Hindu With grocers and cold storage owners refusing to accept scrapped currency notes, farmers are struggling to get potato seeds while landless labourers are forced to forgo their food. Chitra Bag and her family of six are eating less these days. They make do with one meal instead of the usual three meals, despite a gruelling 8-10 hours of work daily as landless farm labourers. Even though vegetables, grown around their...

-The Economic Times A graphic on this page on Thursday showed a steep increase of Rs 4.8 lakh crore in bank deposits in September over the August figure. This spurt, ahead of the demonetisation of Rs 1,000 and Rs 500 notes announced on November 8, was not seasonal. It needs to be inquired into, to rid the demonetisation drive of a possible taint in the form of suspicion that some people...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: About 57.57 per cent of India's urban population of 300 million has no source of income, socio-economic data released by the government last week suggests, prompting at least one analyst to wonder if this was the reason people were willing to queue up for the whole day to exchange cash. Thirty-seven per cent are engaged in work ranging from begging to government jobs, earning some income. About 5.90...

-The Times of India New Delhi: Are you a farmer? How about earning a handsome amount from the stubble left behind in your field instead of burning it and adding to the pollution level? How about also getting bio-fertiliser and sustainable energy in the same deal? An IIT-Delhi team has provided technical support to Asia's first biogas-based power plant which is now operating on paddy straw for large-scale biogas production in Fazilka, Punjab....