-Economic and Political Weekly The government has notified a Draft Land Reforms Policy which, on paper, has all the requisites of an earnest programme. Yet, the near total failure of earlier efforts at land reforms in India leave little room for hope that something substantial will at last be done to combat landlessness. Harsh Mander (manderharsh@gmail.com) is with the Centre for Equity Studies, New Delhi, and works with survivors of mass violence,...

-Down to Earth Our policy makers should move away from the income criterion for estimating poverty and take cognisance of other indicators Amid mounting criticism and heated debates about the poverty line, a challenge has resurfaced to examine whether there could be a single non-monetary criterion of estimating poverty. A poverty line is a monetary cut-off point below which a person is deemed to be poor. Thus, any attempt to measure poverty...

-PTI GWALIOR: Rural Development Ministry would join hands with a leading defence research organisation to push eco-friendly bio-toilets in villages in four states where the menace of open defecation remained unaddressed. Impressed by the achievement of the Defence Research and Development Establishment (DRDE) in developing low cost bio-toilets, Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh today said that members of Women Self Help Groups from Bihar, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh would be...

-The Hindu Efficacy of System of Rice Intensification demonstrated in Tiruchi district TIRUCHI: In a region that has been famous for generous use of the Cauvery Water [whenever available], farmers are increasingly adopting a cultivation method that requires less Water. A large number of farmers in the Tiruchi district who went in for ‘kuruvai' paddy crop in the filter point areas in June amidst concerns over the dwindling Water table had successfully adopted...

-PTI There has been an increase of 569 cases of deaths due to diseases caused because of drinking contaminated Water in 2012, the Lok Sabha was informed on Monday. In 2012, a total of 3,883 people died due to diseases caused because of drinking of contaminated Water as compared to 3,314 in 2011, Minister of State in Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation Bharatsinh Solanki told Lok Sabha in a written reply...