Varanasi, which is known as Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Lok Sabha constituency during 2014, has hit the headlines recently due to people's struggle for water rights. Altogether 18 village councils (Gram Panchayats) of Varanasi have written recently to Uttar Pradesh Pollution Control Board to stop overexploitation of groundwater by the Coca-Cola bottling plant, which is situated in Mehdiganj (please click here to access their letters).   The village councils, which have...

-DNA The situation of hunger has now resulted in several starvation deaths. In the last six months, 65 workers have died, with 21 dead in Birpara tea estate, 16 in Hantapara, 15 in Dhumchipara, 7 in Gargandya and 6 in Nageswari. At about 3 pm on September 15 early this year, Rajman Lohar passed away in his modest home in Hantapara. A permanent worker at the Hantapara Tea Estate, owned by the...

-Livemint.com In 1986, Italian journalist Carlo Petrini was outraged when McDonald’s opened its first outlet in Rome. He saw this as a threat to Italy’s culinary culture. He led a protest against the global industrialization of food, which culminated in the slow food movement. Starting in Rome, the movement is now a worldwide phenomenon. Edited excerpts from an interview at the Indigenous Terra Madre in Shillong: * What are the key achievements...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Expressing concern over increasing number incidents of children being bitten by stray dogs, the Supreme Court on Monday sought response from the Centre on how to control the menace and provide free treatment and anti-rabies medicine to the victims. A bench of Justices Dipak Misra and Prafulla C Pant said the state governments and local municipal bodies should be held accountable for not controlling stray dogs...

Agricultural insurance is supposed to protect farmers from financial hardships and risks when crop losses and damage takes place due to extreme weather events such as drought, cyclone, hailstorms, flood etc. However, in reality this does not hold true in India. Due to the failure of crop insurance schemes in India, there has been a deepening of agrarian crisis and rural distress in the recent times, particularly in the backdrop of...