-NDTV Profit / Agencies US seed company Monsanto is welcome to leave India if it does not want to lower prices of genetically modified cotton seeds as directed by the government, a minister said on Wednesday, in a sign the rift between New Delhi and the firm is widening. The comments come as the government expects to develop its own genetically modified (GM) cotton varieties early next year to end Monsanto's dominance;...

-The New Indian Express BHUBANESWAR: Eminent agricultural economist Ashok Gulati on Monday emphasised on higher growth in agriculture sector for faster reduction of poverty. Addressing the second Odisha Knowledge Hub (OKH) lecture series on ‘Getting agriculture back on track in the growth agenda of the Nation and State’ at the Secretariat here, Gulati said the agriculture sector has the potential to grow at five per cent per annum as against the present...

-Press Release from Delhi Pension Parishad Activists from seven major campaigns stated unequivocally that the Union Budget for 2016-17 far from ‘Transforming India’, as claimed by the Finance Minister, Shri Arun Jaitley, is neglecting the interests of farmers, the poor and vulnerable both in nominal and real terms and subjecting every life-affirming program to severe  budget cuts. Activists from seven major campaigns such as the Right to Food Campaign , the...

-Hindustan Times Jhabua: Bhil tribes people in Madhya Pradesh’s Jhabua and Alirajpur districts have revived their age-old tradition “halma” to conserve environment. Bhil tribes people said the water level and forest cover in the two districts are decreasing and if they do not conserve the natural resources then the next geneRATion will suffer. More than 85% people in the two districts are tribal; most of them are farmers and daily wage workers. Alirajpur...

-The Hindu The Aadhaar Bill opens the door to mass surveillance. This danger needs to be seen in the light of recent attacks on the right to dissent. No other country, and certainly no democRATic country, has ever held its own citizens hostage to such a powerful infrastructure of surveillance. The Aadhaar project was sold to the public based on the claim that enrolment was “voluntary”. This basically meant that there was...