-The Indian Express As per a statement by Additional Chief Secretary (Home) Awanish Kumar Awasthi, this year, till August 19, the UP Police had invoked the NSA against 139 people in the state, 76 of them for cow slaughter. As on August 31, the Bareilly police zone alone accounted for 44 of the cases. Lucknow: THE National Security Act (NSA) was invoked against a man accused of being involved in cow slaughter...

-The Indian Express Several students of Government School Dhanas dropped out as they could not afford smartphones, as now one's access to education depends majorly on it Chandigarh: Bhawna, a student of standard XII at Government School, Dhanas, has been living with her grandfather (80) since her parents passed away, when she was five-years-old. Her grandfather, now 80, makes a living by selling vegetables on a rehri. Barely able to make ends...

-Livemint.com Rural India was battling economic difficulties even before the pandemic. The pandemic-induced lockdown increased hardships even further. The historic contraction in India’s gross domestic product (GDP) figure for the June-ended quarter has raised several questions on what the future holds, and what that contraction has meant for ordinary people. Macro-economic statistics can often fail to capture the diverse realities of a country as large as India, and hence it is useful...

-Centre for Science and Environment * Niti Aayog vice chairperson Rajiv Kumar releases the report, which provides the real picture of organic farming in India: only 2 per cent of India’s net sown area organically farmed, and a mere 1.3 per cent of farmers registered to do organic farming * Organic and natural farming must be upscaled to make Indian agriculture sustainable, says the report * Needs to be turned into a mass...

-Financial Express Signs of a weakening of the Agriculture Produce Marketing Committee (APMC) networks are now evident across major farm production centres in the country, heralding an era of unfettered market access and bolstered bargaining strength for farmers. On June 5, the Centre promulgated three Ordinances reforming the country’s agriculture marketing, and their impact on the trade has been rather sudden and material: During the June 6-August 31 period, mandi arrivals of...