-RuralIndiaOnline.org Imagine a democratic protest where a million farmers, labourers and others march to the capital and compel discussion of the exploding crisis of the countryside in a special three-week session of Parliament India’s agrarian crisis has gone beyond the agrarian. It’s a crisis of society. Maybe even a civilizational crisis, with perhaps the largest body of small farmers and labourers on earth fighting to save their livelihoods. The agrarian crisis is no...

-The Telegraph Why farmers worry when Bhutan lifts stones Saralpara (India-Bhutan border): Since the 1990s, Anarshi Iswary and nearly 500 other farmers from five villages here have been joining hands every Wednesday during the monsoon to build, repair or rebuild a makeshift stone dam on the Saralbhanga, flowing down the hills of Bhutan about 4km away. The Sarpang district administration in Bhutan gives permission with a condition: no digging of the riverbed. The nine-foot-tall...

-The Times of India GURUGRAM: The sand storm conditions prevailing in the city for three days has raised fears of early desertification of the Delhi-NCR region among environmental experts. According to the experts, there has been an increase in frequency, longevity and density of sand storms in this region this year. “The frequency of sand storms has increased in the city in the past one decade. While earlier (in 2002), summer sand...

-GoIMonitor.com The villagers getting management rights under the Forest Rights Act can inspire others “First came the Forest, followed by the people, and then the government. Does this chronology allow the newest entrant in the scheme to determine the relationship between the two older entities? In other words, does the new regime of community Forest resource bequeath rights or is it merely a recognition of unalienable rights already vested in the communities living...

-ThePrint.in DoPT ad for applications gets mixed reactions – some welcome the move but others are apprehensive, say may increase scope for political appointments New Delhi: The Modi government has decided to allow private sector specialists a lateral entry to the crucial joint secretary position in at least 10 ministries and departments, a first-of-its-kind move that has evoked mixed reactions from bureaucrats and politicians. The position of joint secretary has traditionally been...