“When I told a government official that Pesa allows us to determine our policy on liquor trade in the village, he shot back, ‘Are you trying to teach me the law? If you are so knowledgeable about the law, why are you living here in your village in the forest? Why don’t you go and speak in the Orissa assembly?’” Fulsingh Naik, resident of Mandibisi (Rayagada, West Orissa), December 2009, recounting...
More »SEARCH RESULT
Food crisis – how prepared is India? by Saurab Bhat
The recent spike in world food prices has further widened the gap between the developed and the developing economies. While, over 70 per cent of the world's population resides in poor countries, it has access to less than 40 per cent of the world's resources such as water, irrigated land, power, etc. This is a result of inconsistent economic progress (post-colonialisation birth pangs), rampant population growth and distractions such as...
More »NAC For Ways To Boost Crops by Amit Agnihotri
The National Advisory Council (NAC), headed by UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi, will consider ways to boost Indian agriculture as part of its drive to review the draft food security bill on July 1. “The NAC will address the sorry state of Indian agriculture, which recorded negative (-2 per cent) growth in 2010, and try to find ways to boost it in the long term,” said an NAC member. “The idea is...
More »Protest against MSEZ intensifies
It is ironic that a farmer, who has to till his lands during monsoons is fighting to save his lands protesting in front of deputy commissioners office, said William DSouza, vice president, Krishi Bhoomi Samrakshana Samithi here on Sunday. He was addressing the media at the site of the relay indefinite fast, which commenced on Thursday, in support of farmer Gregory Patrao. His agricultural lands were acquired by the Karnataka...
More »Test run for new BPL gauge
A pilot survey will be launched next month to assess the number of the poor in the country on a new set of parameters ahead of the scheduled BPL census in April 2011. The government has decided to launch the pilot project in 260 villages across the country to test the parameters suggested by a former Planning Commission member amid a debate on the best way of doing such counts. The project,...
More »