-The Hindu Unable to sustain their primary occupation, many are said to have begun migrating to cities to work as daily-wage labourers COIMBATORE: KM Ramagoundar, president of the Tamizhaga Vivasayigal Sangam and a farmer based out of Karugur, about 25 km from Krishnagiri, is a frustrated man these days. “Even the so-called big farmers, who own five or six acres, have started going to Bengaluru, where they are working as daily-wage labourers. This...

-The Hindu Study recommends that the scheme should move beyond benefits for women alone to change household behaviour NEW DELHI: The hidden truth of the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojna (PMUY), being touted in the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) election campaigning as one of the big successes of the incumbent Government, is that most rural households with LPG (liquiefied petroleum gas) connections still use chulhas with firewood or dung cakes, to the detriment...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: In what is being seen as an attempt to delay launch of low priced generic medicines, multinational drug makers have asked the Government to create a registry providing information about all drug applications pending manufacturing and marketing approval. The proposal, if accepted by the Government, will help ‘big pharma’ pre-emptively challenge generic drug makers in court for allegedly infringing upon their patents and in turn blocking...

-The Hindu Agrarian crisis has not dimmed Prime Minister Modi’s appeal The sugarcane farmers gathered around a tree-shaded charpoy at Bhainswala village, a few kilometres from Shamli town in western Uttar Pradesh, share a common litany of woes — late payments, high input costs, the stray cattle menace — for which most blame the policies of the BJP Government. But when the discussion veers around to the Lok Sabha election, pandemonium breaks out...

-Mongabay.com * As the election tempo heats up, the Marathwada districts of Maharashtra are suffering severe drought. * The situation is made worse with the employment guarantee not working and fodder not available for the farm livestock. * Piped water facilities supplied by the Government in some villages are not in use because of no water. The irony is unmistakable. In the Marathwada region of Maharashtra, which is in the grip of arguably the...