-The Economic Times NEW DELHI: Joblessness is one of the key reasons why Dalits across India took to the streets to demand that their social and economic lot be improved. In the backdrop of widespread protests that saw nine people killed and many more injured in states like MP, Rajasthan and UP, data submitted by the government to Lok Sabha showed extremely high levels of unemployment among Dalits, lower, in fact, than...

-Hindustan Times The agriculture ministry has started a new programme to focus on millets or coarse cereal production, mostly grown by small and poor farmers New Delhi: The Narendra Modi government has decided to include millets in the public distribution system for which it is procuring these grains at federally fixed minimum support prices, agriculture minister Radha Mohan Singh said. The agriculture ministry has started a new programme to focus on millets or...

-Business Standard State set to grab pole position in 3rd edition of rankings, which are likely to be out early April, Delhi expected to score low The third edition of the government's annual Ease of Doing Business ranking for states, modeled on the international one conducted by the World Bank, may see West Bengal jumping 15 places to top the list along with Chhatisgarh and Madhya Pradesh. Data collected till Wednesday on an...

-The Hindu Farming must be treated as a market-based enterprise and made viable on its own terms The week-long farmers’ march which reached Mumbai earlier this month, on the anniversary of Gandhi’s Dandi March of 1930, was unprecedented in many ways. It was mostly silent and disciplined, mostly leaderless, non-disruptive and non-violent, and well organised. It received the sympathy of middle class city dwellers, food and water from bystanders, free medical services...

-The Indian Express The demand is a call for upholding local practices of belonging On March 12, about 50,000 farmers reached Mumbai, walking 165 km in the hope that their elected representatives would listen when they spoke. A majority of these farmers were Adivasis and one of their demands was the implementation of the Forest Rights Act (FRA) and through it, their land rights. The FRA was enacted in 2006 with the...