-The Hindu High tension electricity towers installed in fields render the land partially useless Hyderabad (Telengana): Mohd Burhan, a small farmer, is faced with a piquant situation. He has to marry off his daughter and all he has is a piece of land to meet the expenditure. Well, he is prepared to sell away his 10 guntas situated at Ibrahimpally near Chevella for the marriage. But there are simply no takers. A few...

-The Hindustan Times The entire framework for monitoring environmental compliance is being dismantled systematically. This is a process that actually began with the UPA government, which replaced the feisty environment minister Jairam Ramesh with the more pliant Jayanthi Natarajan. With industry lobbies still crying wolf, she too made way for Veerappa Moily, the petroleum and natural gas minister, without the UPA seeing anything contradictory in someone holding both those responsibilities. In just a month,...

-Financial Chronicle The United Nations declared 2014 as the International Year of Family Farming (IYFF) to recognise the importance of family farming in reducing poverty and improving global food security. According to the UN, the IYFF aims to promote new development policies at national and regional levels that will help small holder and family farmers eradicate hunger through small scale sustainable agricultural production. Family farming involves about 500 million families consisting...

-The Week Manorama Online Broken hearts float down the Bhakra Main Line canal. Broken by the endless struggle with the land, with the weather, with the creditor. Broken by broken promises, broken by the honour they lost, broken enough to kill themselves. And, at the sluice gate at Khanauri village they slow down, looking up with unseeing eyes. And, from the bridge across the canal, the beating hearts they broke look...

-The Asian Age Three common arguments are advanced to the citizens of India as justifying the need for genetically modified crops. None of these owe their intellectual genesis to the present NDA government (which is employing them nonetheless), and can be found as theses in both UPA2 and UPA1. They are: Genetically engineered seed and crop are necessary in order that India find lasting food security; that good science and particularly...