-The Hindu Business Line New Delhi: All India Kisan Sabha, the farmers’ outfit of CPI (M), has decided to hold a protest of the family members of farmers who committed suicide in the last one year. Families of about 100 farmers, who committed suicide, will SIT in front of Parliament to protest the policies of the Narendra Modi Government on Monday. Alarming rise CPI (M) Polit Bureau member and AIKS General Secretary Hannan...

-Livemint.com Will a development record alone be enough to win elections? There is a popular saying in Bihar that people in the state do not cast their vote, but vote their caste. Lalu Prasad Yadav’s 15-year rule till 2005 was built on the Muslim-Yadav equation. The 2010 elections marked a break in this trend, according to many commentators. In a column after the 2010 Bihar elections, political scientist Milan Vaishnav attributed Nitish...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Now, lakhs of labourers working on construction SITes can avail medical benefits under the labour ministry's Employee State Insurance (ESI) scheme. "The Employee State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) has approved extending benefits of the ESI scheme to workers deployed on construction SITes from August 1, 2015," said an official. The decision is seen as a big step by the BJP government to extend social security coverage to a...

-Economic and Political Weekly A number of state agencies and non-governmental organisations have come forward to facilitate farmers/breeders to register their crop varieties and obtain plant variety certifi cates. But can these agencies bring forth a change in the mindset of the small farmers and seed savers' groups who view the current intellectual property regime with scepticism and continue to keep away from it? Shalini Bhutani (shalinibhutani@hotmail.com) is a legal researcher and...

-The Financial Express Seasonal showers declined 6% from the long-period average up to August 6 For the first time since the current monsoon season started in June, the country’s water storage has dropped from both the level a year before and the normal benchmark average, thanks to a slowdown in monsoon rains since early July. Seasonal showers declined 6% from the long-period average (LPA) up to August 6, worsening from a deficit of...