-The Hindu Business Line New Delhi: A section of agricultural scientists, activists and farmer leaders has alleged that there is an undesirable attempt to align India’s Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers’ Rights (PPR&FRA) 2001 with the International Union for the Protection of Plant Varieties (UPOV), even though the country has no legal obligation to do so. In a letter written to Union Agriculture Minister Radhamohan Singh and PPR&FR Authority Chairperson KV...

-The Hindu Several interventions are needed on the demand and supply side to alleviate farm distress Loan waivers remain the preferred solution for governments to tackle farm distress. S. Mahendra Dev and M. Govinda Rao talk about the inability of governments to think of long-term solutions to tackle farm distress, in a discussion moderated by Vikas Dhoot. Edited excerpts: * Despite farm productivity rising, severe distress in the sector is a concern. How...

-Hindustan Times The NSSO report, findings of which were first published in Mint on Wednesday, found that 36% of the companies in the MCA-21 database maintained by the ministry of corporate affairs (MCA) could not be traced or were wrongly classified. New Delhi: The ministry of statistics and programme implementation (MoSPI) has downplayed the controversy around India’s gross domestic product (GDP) data after a National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) report raised serious...

-The Hindu Shell companies in MCA-21 submitting balance sheets regularly very much part of measurement, says former chief statistician The deficiencies found in the MCA-21 database of the corporate sector, where more than a third of the sample companies were either untraceable, out of coverage, or closed, will not have a major impact on the calculation of GDP and GVA, according to prominent statisticians closely associated with the subject. A recent report by...

-The Hindu Section 56-D of the Conduct of Election Rules allows scrutiny of VVPAT slips in case of disputes. New Delhi: Although the Supreme Court and the Election Commission have not agreed to the Opposition parties’ demand for 50% random physical verification of the Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) results with Voter-Verified Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) slips, they can still take recourse to Section 56-D of the Conduct of Election Rules to request...