-The Hindu Business Line WRMS forecasts deficit rains for Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu Thiruvananthapuram: In what is seen as the first official outlook for year 2018 monsoon, private forecaster Weather Risk Management Services (WRMS) has said that the June-September rainfall would be largely on the ‘positive side of normal’ (normal to above normal). The forecast comes in the backdrop of a season that flattered to deceive in the just past year, recording only...

-The Indian Express First, let us compliment both the parties—farmers and the state government—in Maharashtra’s Agrarian crisis for reaching an amicable solution, at least for the time being, and averting a major chaos or violence. First, let us compliment both the parties—farmers and the state government—in Maharashtra’s Agrarian crisis for reaching an amicable solution, at least for the time being, and averting a major chaos or violence. Farmers deserve appreciation for...

-Hindustan Times Both, the farmers who undertook the march and those who went on strike, represent the wide spectrum of the state’s ongoing Agrarian and rural distress. Last year, on June 1, thousands of farmers in Maharashtra went on an unprecedented strike, refusing to sell their produce to markets and cutting off supply of daily necessities – milk, vegetables and fruits – to cities. The two-day strike forced the Devendra Fadnavis-led...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: The Centre on Tuesday set in motion an attempt to get the budget passed without discussion in a paralysed Parliament through a process known as the guillotine. Once the guillotine is applied, all outstanding demands for grants from various departments will be put to vote at once whether they are discussed or not. With protests aborting all business in both Houses since the session started on March 5, the...

-The Indian Express Large numbers of the tribals who have gathered in the Mumbai are not seeking a loan waiver, but the implementation of the vision envisaged in Forest Rights Act, a legislation enacted by Parliament in 2006. The nearly 40,000 sunburnt and dusty men and women waiting patiently in an open ground in Mumbai on Sunday night tell the story of the continuing gloom in Maharashtra’s farmlands more succinctly than the...