-Economic and Political Weekly After coming to power in 2014, the National Democratic Alliance government took several measures to dilute the pro-poor provisions of the Land Acquisition Act of 2013. Though it has backed down, several questions remain over the way the Modi government has dealt with the issue of land acquisition. Santosh Verma (santosh.econ@gmail.com) is at the Council for Social Development, New Delhi. Land acquisition—by private corporations or the state—has raised vital...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal has asked the central government to increase wages under the national rural job scheme to at least Rs 300 a day to attract workers, a view apparently shared by many states as well as activists. An official in the rural development ministry said many state governments had already written to the Centre citing difficulties in implementing the MGNREGA because of the low...

-The Hindu Business Line The CPI(M) has many questions for Arun Jaitley on the land ordinance, including where food will be grown Arun Jaitley is clearly seeking to defend the indefensible. What he claims are the obvious answers actually seek to camouflage the hidden intent with which the BJP government brought the ordinance, not once but thrice in succession. The first question to Jaitley is why he as the leader of the House...

-PTI MUMBAI: Maharashtra government is mulling amending the Maharashtra Employment Guarantee Act to bring under its ambit farm-hands and labourers involved in the agricultural sector. State finance minister Sudhir Mungantiwar said the idea is to bring individuals other than farmers, like those who do the work of levelling farm lands and building farm roads under the ambit of the Employment Guarantee Scheme Act so that they get employment under it. Please click here...

-The Times of India COIMBATORE: The Indian Rice Research Institute, Hyderabad, has awarded a farmer from Dharapuram for adopting drip irrigation system in rice cultivation, thereby reducing water consumption by 60%. Parthasarathy M, 69, received the Innovative Rice Farmer Award on August 29. In all, 30 farmers from sixteen states were nominated for this award. Parthasarathy bagged the award for largescale adoption of drip irrigation for rice cultivation in Amaravathy sub-basin in Tamil...