-The Financial Express The agriculture ministry is not reconciled to the grip which Monsanto has on the Indian cottonseed industry owing to the immense preference for its patented, genetically-modified (GM) bollworm-resistance traits. On May 16, Additional Solicitor-General Tushar Mehta intervened in a dispute between Monsanto and its biggest (now divorced) sub-licensee, Hyderabad-based Nuziveedu Seeds. He made written submissions on behalf of the government, a week after hearings on the matter had...

-TheWire.in Conditionalities related to utilising health services do not make any sense in the absence of a service guarantee, and only serve to blame the victims and not the system for its failures. Nearly six months after the prime minister announced maternity benefits of Rs 6,000 to pregnant and lactating mothers, the cabinet yesterday approved the implementation of the maternity benefits programme (MBP) – a scheme that will likely exclude a large...

-The Times of India MADURAI: The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), rolled out a decade ago, has impacted households and individuals in a positive as well as negative way, but the adverse impacts of the scheme could impact the nation's food security, according to an authoritative study. What may set the alarm bells ringing is the projected decline in acreage under rice cultivation in states like Tamil Nadu and...

-The Indian Express We have been numbed by a series of lies, myths and fictions about the project. India is at risk of becoming a surveillance state, with faint resistance from libertarians, intellectuals, political parties, the media, or the Supreme Court. Very soon, almost everyone will have an Aadhaar number, seeded in hundreds of databases. Most of these databases will be accessible to the government without invoking any special powers. Permanent surveillance...

-PTI The Delhi High Court today made it clear to the Centre that persons entitled under the public distribution system (PDS) scheme cannot be denied subsidised foodgrains. A bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice Anu Malhotra said the “persons entitled under the scheme cannot be denied subsidised foodgrains” and it wanted to ensure that “not only the poor” but all those “eligible” should avail the benefits of the...