-Down to Earth   UN agency's latest state of the forests report says poverty alleviation and rural employment should be the ulterior driving force in amending old forest policies Recognising the role of forests in providing livelihood to people, UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has asked nations to formulate people-centric forest policies. "It is time for forestry to shift perspective from trees to people," says FAO's annual "The State of the World's...

-The Times of India   NEW DELHI: Amid protests over a sharp hike in fares and criticism of political parties, the government on Saturday strongly defended the increase in passenger fares, including for short-distance travel, arguing the revision was long overdue as the last hike took place around 11 years ago and a heavy subsidy burden was "unsustainable" in the wake of soaring costs. While passengers travelling by sub-urban and short-haul trains account...

-The Hindustan Times   Going by our Intelligence Bureau (IB) and some of the voices in the government, anyone asking for the protection of the country's forests, its rivers or its coasts is anti-national and destroying the country's economy. I have spent the better part of my life working to save India's natural wealth from the assault of development (largely in vain it often seems). I told successive governments that the hundreds of...

Punjab, which was known to be the land of agricultural prosperity during the 1970s and 1980s thanks to the Green Revolution, has increasingly witnessed its small and marginal farmers being pushed out of the agricultural sector. Based on a survey (conducted in 2012-13) of 288 farmers from 12 villages—2 villages from each of the 6 districts that represent various agro-climatic zones—the study by Sukhpal Singh and Shruti Bhogal reveals that...

-The Hindu   Government policies, vagaries of weather drive them to the wall Anantpur (Andhra Pradesh): The agriculture scenario in the Anantapur district might well be on the path to irreversible damage if unchecked and acted upon with immediate urgency. Over 15 per cent of farmers are leaving agriculture altogether, if the statistics available with the Agriculture Department are to be extrapolated to the ground realities and understood in that context. Speaking to The...