-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Security and intelligence organizations continue to work under the veil of secrecy with minimal scrutiny from Parliament and judiciary. Nearly half of them have not bothered to disclose the number of RTI applications received in the last seven years. About 11 or 44% of the 25 security agencies including Intelligence Bureau, RAW, National Security Council Secretariat (NSCS), Aviation Research Centre among others have not reported the...
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Protecting the small farmer -Ananth Gudipati
-The Hindu Reviving the Farm Income Insurance Scheme could be the best tool for small and marginal farmers to fight falling prices in an increasingly globalised marketplace. Data from the recently held National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) survey show that close to 60 per cent of rural households are dependent on agriculture for their livelihood. More than half of them are at risk of defaulting on their debts with either banks or...
More »Old but not gold -Rukmini S
-The Hindu India now has over 100 million citizens over the age of 60, five times the number in 1950. Independent India was born an extraordinarily young country. The median age was just a little over 21, and nearly 60 per cent of the population was under 25. With life expectancy just 36 years, the issue of managing an ageing population must have seemed like challenges for the distant future. Much has changed...
More »Land Acquisition Bill: Missing the big, bleak picture -Sanjay Kumar & Pranav Gupta
-The Hindu With the Land Acquisition Bill in the limelight, nobody is talking about the real reforms that farmers need. A major survey finds that almost half the respondents don't want to continue with agriculture. The unseasonal rains over the last few weeks have resulted in enormous loss of crop output across many States of North India. This has shifted attention from the issue of land acquisition to other important problems faced...
More »In true colours -Sudhir Kumar Panwar
-Frontline The BJP-led NDA government has, in the two Budgets it has presented so far, revealed itself to be very different from the pro-farmer image that its leading election campaigner and now Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, projected. THE Bharatiya Janata Party's manifesto for the 2014 Lok Sabha election states: "Agriculture is the engine of India's economic growth and the largest employer, and BJP commits highest priority to agriculture growth, increases in...
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