Union Minister for Agriculture Sharad Pawar today expressed unhappiness over non-availing of agricultural loan by the farmers of the North-Eastern States in the way it was expected, which he feels has hampered investment and finally the overall agricultural production of the region. "Though the Centre has doubled the agricultural credit amount recently and Centre has been able to disburse Rs 3, 50,000 crore this year, the North Eastern States have not...
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Are GM crops safe? by Shanthu Shantharam
Finally, India’s science academies have broken their silence and said that GM crops should be an important part of technology mix, which is crucially needed to improve India’s agriculture. The report entitled Inter-Academy Report on GM Crops was submitted to the Union government earlier this week. The combined wisdom of the six academies of sciences in the country was long time coming. It is this kind of scientific advice (voice) that...
More »Spotlight on ‘invisible’ crime
When a victim of trafficking is rescued, the reports often describe in detail the physical torture, the sex and the violence that was forced on her. But not where she came from, nor where she is going. Now that she has been rescued, what does life have on offer? “Trafficking is an invisible crime,” said Malini Bhattacharya, chairperson of the West Bengal women’s commission. No camera captures the moment a person...
More »Struggles of rural women captured on celluloid by Priya M Menon
A strong protagonist who overcomes all odds, a village scoundrel who takes advantage of the ignorance and naivete of the people around him, family drama Usha Rajeswari's new directorial venture has all this and more. But Shakti Pirakkudhu' (A New Strength Is Born) is not your regular Tamil feature film. The protagonist is a middle-aged woman with two kids, and the odds she surmounts are the difficulties faced by women...
More »MNREGA workers peeved at being paid Re. 1 by K Balchand
Peeved at being paid just Re. 1 as their daily wage for the labour they put in under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA), workers of Gudlia Gaon under Rupbas Panchayat of Tonk district in Rajasthan are set to tread Bapu's path to protest against the injustice meted out to them. These workers will stage a Satyagraha in Jaipur on October 2 and return the entire money that...
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