-The Hindu Business Line New Delhi: Total sowing in the ongoing kharif season so far has surpassed both last year’s acreage and the normal area — the average of total sown area in the previous five years. Sowing of rice, pulses, coarse cereals and oilseeds have exceeded last year’s acreage by significant margins, while sugar, cotton and jute are lower, according to figures supplied by States and compiled by the Centre. “The...

-Livemint.com India’s Kharif foodgrain production is estimated at 135 million tonnes in 2016-17, 9% higher than the year before New Delhi: Boosted by a normal monsoon, India’s rain-fed Kharif harvest will be the highest ever in history, show first advance estimates of crop production released by the agriculture ministry on Thursday. India’s Kharif foodgrain production is estimated at 135 million tonnes in 2016-17, 9% higher than the year before, when a crippling drought...

-The Indian Express The Centre is pushing and many States are implementing Direct Benefit Transfers – and encountering little political opposition The entire focus on ushering in a direct benefit transfer (DBT) regime for delivering subsidies to the targeted populations has so far centered around cooking gas, and to some extent, on isolated pilot experiments with food subsidy. Agriculture subsidies, especially on inputs other than fertilisers, have largely escaped attention in...

-The Indian Express A decade after ‘Prakash Singh’ judgement, police reform remains undone. Anniversaries and birthdays are joyous occasions. The 10th anniversary of the Supreme Court’s judgement in the Prakash Singh case should be one of them — a reason to look back with pride at the court’s seven directions in its September 22, 2006, verdict aimed at propelling police reform. The judgement was intended — but perhaps not expected — to...

-Livemint.com At least 150 villages in Karnataka have already qualified as drought affected, with more being added as rainfall continues to be deficient, according to a Cabinet minister Bengaluru: The Karnataka government could well be on its way to declare the state as drought-affected after nearly two months of dry spell, according to two people familiar with the move. At least 150 villages in the state have already qualified as drought affected,...