-Business Standard The government could introduce a regulatory framework to ensure that the biometric details of citizens it collects is kept discreet and used only to generate Aadhaar numbers or authenticate them. The Aadhaar Bill, which could be introduced in the Lok Sabha on Thursday, is likely to introduce this regulatory framework. It could also to propose that in cases of national security, an officer not below the rank of a joint...

-The Asian Age The Economic Survey of 2015-2016 is a lovely document which goes into great detail on what is wrong with India on the economic front and offers good workable solutions to solve these problems. One of the points that the survey makes is regarding Indian agriculture becoming cereal-centric. The reason for this lies in the fact that the government procures rice and wheat from farmers at the minimum support price...

-Economic Times PUNE: As the 2016-17 union budget revealed its emphasis on organic farming by allocating Rs 412 crore for organic farming and announcing to bring 5 lakh acre under organic farming in next 3 years, farmers want concrete MEAsures to implement it successfully. "Considering that the yield per acre is very low in organic farming, we want the government to give minimum support price for organic produce," said Jayapal Reddy, secretary,...

-TheWire.in This year’s Union Budget markets itself as a pro-poor and pro-farmer budget. To take a closer and harder look at this, The Wire spoke to Ashok Gulati, chair professor for agriculture at ICRIER. Gulati tells The Wire why this budget is insignificant for reducing farmers’ distress, in spite of all the talk. Edited excerpts from the interview follow: * How much is the actual increase in the total allocation to agriculture...

-Press Note on Union Budget 2016-17 from Swaraj Abhiyan The farmers of India needed and expected a big deal from this year’s budget – they needed it because it is a time of unprecedented consecutive years of drought, and rising farmer suicides; they expected it because the Prime Minister and the government indicated that major pro-farmer steps would be announced in the Budget. The Budget presented by Finance Minister today is...