-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday announced that the government will not renew the controversial land acquisition ordinance that lapses on Monday and declared its readiness to incorporate any suggestions in the bill pending before Parliament. "We had issued an ordinance which lapses tomorrow (August 31). I have decided, let it lapse. We will not renew it," Modi said in his 'Mann ki Baat' radio broadcast. "It...

-The Hindu Across the country, unless adequate jobs are created for the large labour force, the frustration of the youth is not likely to be contained. In Gujarat, the Patels or Patidars, who constitute about 15 per cent of the State’s population, are an economically and politically dominant upper caste. As successful farmers, as small and big industrialists, as traders as well as non-resident Gujaratis, spread practically all over the world, they...

-The Hindu Despite growing clamour for pesticide-free produce, doubts persist about the capability of organic farming to generate high yields Kerala: Organic farming began finding momentum in Kerala since the unveiling of a policy in 2010 that set the goal of converting the entire agricultural production in the State to organic within 10 years. That policy announced by the then Left Democratic Front government is now being fast-tracked by the present United...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: The Centre tonight issued an executive order to continue better compensation and rehabilitation packages for land-losers, three days before an ordinance providing the increased benefits was to expire. The Congress likened the order, covering land acquired under 13 central laws, to "rubbing salt on Parliament". A government statement said Section 113 of the UPA-crafted Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013, was...

-The Hindu Over 400 million people, or over a third of the population in 2011, had never attended any school or educational institution, new numbers from the census show. According to the new data, while enrolment in school is now over 80 per cent for school-age children, higher education enrolment remains low. Enrolment in educational institutions rose between 2001 and 2011 at every level, most of all in the primary and secondary school-going...