-Livemint.com Agriculture is not only crucial for what happens to growth, inflation and rural distress, it is also politically important given the simmering discontent among farmers in the last two years Last week, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) declared that the south-west monsoon has covered the entire country, 15 days earlier than normal. This may be a cause for celebration considering the distress in agriculture in the last four years. Agriculture is...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday issued notices to the Centre, Bengal and seven other states on a petition seeking immediate filling up of the posts in the Central Information Commission and the state information commissions. A bench of Justices A.K. Sikri and Ashok Bhushan sought responses within four weeks on the PIL filed jointly by three RTI activists - Anjali Bharadwaj, Amrita Jorhi and Lokesh K. Batra -...

-Livemint.com The concerns about the downsides of these schemes are overblown, and they could go some way in alleviating rural woes Since the Union Budget 2018-19, there has been a great deal of discussion in the public domain regarding the health of the rural sector. We believe that the rural sector needs some policy intervention, be it price support or income support. As a case in point, the agri gross domestic product...

-Hindustan Times The latest instance of a lynching triggered by rumours about kidnappers was in Tripura on Thursday. The victim was an activist hired by the state government to create awareness about misleading social media messages. New Delhi: Several fake social media videos and messages containing similar themes of outsiders stealing children have claimed 14 lives across the country since May 20 despite police warning people not to believe in such rumours. Scores...

-Business Standard In the case of paddy, the current bout of rain should push transplanting crops from nurseries in Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, eastern Uttar Pradesh, and Bihar Mumbai/ New Dehi: The southwest monsoon, after a relatively lull phase, has become active over the past two days in belts of eastern, central, northern and western India where mainly pulses, oilseeds, cotton, and paddy are grown. There are forecasts of heavy to very heavy rain. In...