-VillageSquare.in Independent and small beekeepers are uniting against adulterated and diluted honey sold in the domestic market by companies fighting a price war Amravati (Maharashtra): After a long hiatus of eight years, the purple-colored Karvi flower (Strobilanthes callosus) bloomed in the low hills of western Maharashtra, heightening the spirits of people like Ashok Shelar of Warsoi Koli village, neighboring Maharashtra’s favorite hill station, Mahabaleshwar. A proud owner of 80 bee colonies, he...

-The Indian Express Govt must learn from mistakes in onions and potatoes, agriculture should be spared of bearing the burden of its inflation targeting. Last week, Union Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced a 5% subsidy on onion exports in the form of transferable duty credit scrips that can be used to pay customs, excise or service tax. On top of it, the Maharashtra government extended a Rs 100 per quintal grant to...

-Hindustan Times New Delhi: The bread you eat everyday could be pushing you closer to cancer. More than 80% of 38 popular brands of breads, buns and ready-to-eat burger and pizza tested positive for potassium bromate and iodate, a study by the Delhi-based Centre for Science and Environment says. The first of the two chemicals is a category 2B carcinogen – that can possibly cause cancer – and the second is known to...

-The Indian Express Yes, except that farmers suffer rules other businessmen never encounter Agriculture is said to be India’s largest private-sector enterprise, engaging nearly 119 million farmers (“cultivators”) and another 144 million landless labourers, as per the 2011 Census. It is even considered the most respectable business, going by the oft-quoted slogan “uttam kheti, madhyam vyapar, kanishtha naukri (supreme is farming, mediocre is trade and most lowly is service)”. But the exalted...

-Frontline.in The increase in the budgetary allocation for the MGNREGA is only marginal. The scheme helped lower the poverty level by 32 per cent between 2004-05 and 2011-12, but government support for it has been declining steadily. In the beginning, economists belonging to the Right and the Left were of the view that the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) was merely a populist measure. While the former believed...