-Newsclick.in The state would promote collective farming which is done by various co-operatives and community networks like Kudumbashree. Pointing towards Contract Farming, Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar, in conference of State Agriculture Ministers in Delhi, has said that farming can become profitable if small and marginal farmers are given access to technological solutions and research. However, the Agriculture Minister of Kerala, VS Sunil Kumar opposed government’s plan to accelerate Contract Farming...

-TheWire.in/ PRS blog The Union Budget replicates revised estimates reported in the interim Budget, not the updated figures for 2018-19 from the Controller General of Accounts. Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the Union Budget for the financial year 2019-20 in parliament on July 5, 2019. In the 2019-20 budget, the government presented the estimates of its expenditure and receipts for the year 2019-20. The Budget also gave an account of how much...

-The Indian Express The FM has rightly spoken of a “focus on integrated demand and supply side management of water at the local level, including source sustainability and management of household wastewater for reuse in agriculture”. India is not a water-short country. We have merely managed our plentiful water very poorly. What we need, therefore, is a paradigm shift in policy. Could the finance minister (FM) be said to have risen to...

-The Indian Express One notable thing was the absence of emphasis on doubling farmers’ real incomes by 2022. Perhaps the reality that this is an uphill task has dawned on the government — it may not achieve even half the target. In her first budget speech, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman reminded us of the famous quote from M K Gandhi, that the “soul of India lives in villages”. She also said...

-The Hindu The National Crime Records Bureau must be more prompt and open in releasing data Indian prisons make news when there is a jail break, a prison riot or when the lawyers of high-profile businessmen or economic evaders fight against their extradition to India. And in the midst of the election process this year, the release of the data-driven report, the Prison Statistics India 2016, published by the National Crime Records...