-Down to Earth After two budgets and Rs 5,300 crore in funding, the Centre's micro irrigation project that promises water to every farmland is not even close to a roll-out The news of deficit monsoons this year has once again left the Centre worried. A concerned prime minister chaired a high-level meeting on June 8 where he emphasised the need to quickly augment the irrigation capacity of the country. But he conveniently...

-The Hindu To help break the impasse on the Bill, the Cabinet decided on adding a provision to enable the States to frame and pass their own laws. The Union Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, deliberated on Tuesday a proposal to amend the Land Bill to give flexibility to the States to frame their own laws for land acquisition, a demand various Chief Ministers aired at the July 15 meeting...

-The Times of India AHMEDABAD: Inadequate rains and farmers selling land to make way for industries to be one of the main reasons that have led to Gujarat's farms yield to be lower by 71 lakh tones in 2014-15. This was revealed last week after the state agriculture department sent production estimates for 2014-15 to the central government. Gujarat's cultivation area for rabi, kharif and summer crops went down by 32.42 lakh...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: Several members of a joint House panel examining the land acquisition bill today slammed the government for holding "parallel" discussions on the same bill in the Niti Aayog, calling it an "insult to Parliament". Their criticism came a day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who chaired a meeting of the governing council of the Aayog, warned the Opposition that the deadlock over the bill was "seriously" impacting rural...

-Hindustan Times With the key Land Acquisition bill stalled by political differences with the Opposition, the Centre may change tack and get states to enact their own land legislation, enabling it to push along the economic reform process.   Finance minister Arun Jaitley said on Wednesday that the states that wanted speedy development could take the lead in framing such laws with the Centre's backing, while Prime Minister Narendra Modi said “political considerations”...