Last week, the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) released its first annual monsoon forecast for June-September. Monsoons are likely to be normal with the probability of deficient or excessive monsoons being relatively low, according to IMD. If this prediction comes true, what does this really mean for India's economy? Impact on agricultural output: The first and most important impact is, of course, on agricultural production, especially in the kharif or summer season....

-The Asian Age The Centre on Friday said it is examining a proposal to provide foodgrains as part of wage payments to agriculture workers under NREGA. Agriculture minister Sharad Pawar also said that another proposal to provide a CERTain number of NREGA workers for agricultural operation has “not received” any positive response. He was responding to a demand from Congress leader J.D. Seelam in the Rajya Sabha that the government should...

Alarmed by its proactive role, the three ‘pillars’ of our democracy set out to weaken the fourth estate Fundamentalisms do not necessarily announce their arrival by banging a hammer on our heads. Freedoms are often lost in little steps. The process creeps in quietly but insidiously. The path is often complex and defies a simple narrative. But here’s a straightforward fact: a conCERTed attempt is being made to censor, control...

-Zee News Information provided by a person while applying for passport can be disclosed under the Right to Information Act, the Central Information Commission (CIC) has held. "Given our dismal record of mis-governance and rampant corruption which collude to deny citizens their essential rights and dignity, it is in the fitness of things that the Citizen's Right to Information is given greater primacy with regard to privacy," Information Commissioner Shailesh Gandhi...

Police investigation of Sanal Edamaraku for debunking a “miracle” at a church is a crime against the Constitution. Early in March, little drops of water began to drip from the feet of the statue of Jesus nailed to the cross on the church of Our Lady of Velankanni, down on to Mumbai's unlovely Irla Road. Hundreds began to flock to the church to collect the holy water in little plastic bottles,...