-The Hindu Business Line India’s Protection of Plant Varieties Act spells out rights of farmers vis-a-vis breeders, which resulted in a pushback for PepsiCo The Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers’ Rights Act (PPVFRA), which introduced intellectual property protection in Indian agriculture, faced its biggest test in its implementation phase of nearly a decade and a half, when PepsiCo India initiated legal proceedings against four farmers in Gujarat for “illegally” growing...

-The Hindu The exclusion of migrants from the electoral process reveals the caste- and class-driven nature of mainstream politics While political commentators have been busy analysing voter preferences in the general election 2019, one segment, namely migrants, continues to be overlooked. The Election Commission of India (EC), on February 21, clarified that NRI voters cannot cast votes online, and that an NRI who holds an Indian passport can vote in his/her hometown after...

-The Hindu Residents in the pilgrim town block traffic blaming Odisha govt. for lack of food Puri (Odisha): The was visible anger on the streets of Puri on Tuesday with thousands of cyclone-affected people struggling to get food and water four days after cyclone Fani hit the district. Although the Odisha government had said that cooked food was being provided to those who took shelter in different buildings including multi-purpose cyclone shelters, community...

-The Hindu Business Line Launched in February after the BJP’s defeat in three states in the Hindi heartland, the Prime Minister’s ambitious scheme for farmers may help the party in its fight against the SP-BSP gathbandhan in Uttar Pradesh. Ballia, Ghazipur, Jaunpur, Phulpur: Last month, Raj Narayan Rajbhar, a resident of Saimalpur village in Uttar Pradesh’s Ghazipur Lok Sabha constituency, had Rs 2,000 credited to his bank account under the Pradhan...

-The Hindu Villagers run out of supplies they had stocked ahead of the cyclone BHUBANESWAR: Three days after the extremely severe cyclonic storm Fani hit Odisha coast, the State government on Monday reached several villages blocked by uprooted trees and collapsed electrical poles for the first time to find people in dire need of water, food and polythene sheets. The famed marine drive road between Konark and Puri was cleared on Monday. When...