-Al Jazeera The reforms promoted by Prime Minister Singh do not go far enough to help food production and the hungry. The debate on the Food Security Act is based on myths on both sides. The government is propagating the myth that it is the largest anti-poverty and anti-hunger programme ever introduced anywhere in the world. The programme is being heralded as Sonia Gandhi's dream project, and billed as a miracle solution...
More »SEARCH RESULT
Reviving Land Reforms?-Harsh Mander
-Economic and Political Weekly The government has notified a Draft Land Reforms Policy which, on paper, has all the requisites of an earnest programme. Yet, the near total failure of earlier efforts at land reforms in India leave little room for hope that something substantial will at last be done to combat landlessness. Harsh Mander (manderharsh@gmail.com) is with the Centre for Equity Studies, New Delhi, and works with survivors of mass violence,...
More »Proposal on ‘joni bella’ awaits government’s nod-N Dinesh Nayak
-The Hindu UAS-Dharwad submitted the proposal three years ago DHARWAD: Sugarcane growers in the Sirsi-Yellapur belt are eager to know if the Congress government will approve a scheme that aims to conserve and promote ‘joni bella' - a special variety of jaggery. It has been three years since the University of Agricultural Sciences, Dharwad, sent a Rs. 1 crore proposal in this regard, which, if implemented, promises to boost the agrarian economy in...
More »In the Name of the Greater Good-Gopalkrishna Gandhi
-The Telegraph A village awaits doomsday By Jaideep Hardikar, Penguin, Rs 299 Why is the year, 2011, important? It is important for some states like West Bengal and Tamil Nadu, for it marked a change of government. But it is important, nationally, for the reason that 2011 was a census year. The data for Census 2011 has come, recently, into the public domain - which shows that our farmer population is shrinking....
More »Farmers’ suicide rates soar above the rest-P Sainath
-The Hindu Suicide rates among Indian farmers were a chilling 47 per cent higher than they were for the rest of the population in 2011. In some of the States worst hit by the Agrarian Crisis, they were well over 100 per cent higher. The new Census 2011 data reveal a shrinking farmer population. And it is on this reduced base that the farm suicides now occur. Apply the new Census totals...
More »