-The Indian Express Farmer producer organisations have truly taken off. Now’s the time to create their own lobbying platform. In the summer of 2011, as the managing director of the Small Farmers’ Agribusiness Consortium (SFAC), an autonomous society under the Union Agriculture Ministry, I addressed a group of Uttar Pradesh government officials in Lucknow. My hosts politely sat through my presentation and near-evangelical pitch, as I pushed the idea of promoting farmer...

-The Hindu Rise in cancer cases in Punjab can be attributed to indiscriminate use of agro-chemicals after the Green Revolution Bathinda: Lying on a bench at the Bathinda railway station, sexagenarian Gurjant Singh waits to board the Abohar-Jodhpur passenger train. He, however, is not the only one waiting. As the train chugs into the platform, people rush to claim their seats. Those who are unsuccessful settle down on the floor. Soon, the...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: The Centre has raised wages under the rural job guarantee scheme - by the princely sum of one rupee a day in many states. The increase is the lowest in the 11-year history of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, and leaves its wage rates in 11 states stuck far below their minimum wages, set by the state governments. The eastern states are the worst hit. As...

-TheWire.in Tamil Nadu continues to witness cycles of flood and drought annually. Mismanagement of traditional water management systems is one of the main reasons. Tamil Nadu: That Tamil Nadu qualifies to be dubbed as a land of climate paradoxes is beyond debate. The massive flood of 2015 was quickly followed by a punishing drought in 2016. Though the state benefited marginally from the southwest monsoon, as is usually the case, the biggest...

-The Hindu Business Line Bringing digital banking to Primary Agricultural Cooperative Societies is an important and laudable aspect of the Budget The Budget hides months of discussion, with stakeholders nursing a gamut of interests. This year was no exception and the Budget was an exercise in the accommodation of innumerable expectations; and it is bound to dissatisfy many. I would like to apply the old economic litmus test to judge its efficacy: Is...