As has been the historical trend, most of the budget announcements on agriculture this year, too, are geared towards benefitting agribusiness rather than augmenting farm income, writes Devinder Sharma.

A petition filed by an NGO before the NGT seeks a phasing out of the use of plastic bottles and multi-layered plastic packaging, but there is a strong opposition to the proposal from a significant section of stakeholders belonging to the industry. Devanik Saha reports.

A new food processing company in Kerala proposes to market innovative products, the success of which could well place the largely neglected jackfruit in the focus of attention of bigger players in the state’s food processing industry. Shree Padre reports.

The Skill India Mission aims to provide skills training to around 402 million people by the year 2022. In the first of a two-part series, Shambhu Ghatak upholds estimates of skilled workforce from various reports to highlight the yawning gap that needs to be bridged.

Is India likely to hit the ambitious targets set for the growth of renewable power generation? A compilation of data from different sources by the Prayas Energy Group shows what's working well and where greater efforts are needed.

Despite two high-level recommendations to repeal the Armed Forces Special Powers Act, the law remains in place. The Army is right to insist on its view, but there are things that can be done to improve matters, writes Firdaus Ahmed.

Several recent media reports as well as scholarly literature point to a deep-seated communal bias in certain sections of Indian society. Firdaus Ahmed looks closely at the military and its mutations to explore if it can remain insulated from similar prejudicial leanings.

Firdaus Ahmed deconstructs the various levels of state and individual dynamics that have led to India’s recent military doctrine of ‘disproportionate response’ as evident in various instances of encounters and killings, including the recent crackdown at the Myanmar border.

Gil Penalosa is an indefatigable evangelist for public transport. In the first of a two-part report, Darryl D’Monte details his observations at a Mumbai presentation on streets as public space and the need to make them pedestrian-friendly.

Darryl D'Monte analyses why the proposed Bullet Train between Mumbai and Ahmedabad is not the need of the hour, nor worth the cost.

Two tigers have been relocated from Ranthambore to Sariska tiger reserve, but wildlife conservationists are not about to rejoice, given the extent of work pending at Sariska to reverse past wrongs. Malini Shankar digs deeper.

The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species governs living animals and plants, and also the tusks and skins of dead animals. India has two such items. Darryl D'Monte reports.

Ever since the report of the Subramanian Committee, set up to review and amend key environmental legislation, was leaked, several questions have been raised regarding its real implications for the environment. Darryl D’Monte explains some of the most critical concerns.                                  

Numerous species of Indian birds are critically endangered. Only strict conservation laws can help them survive. Experts fear that many will be wiped off as the environment deteriorates. Unless we have emergency measures, it will be too late says Ramesh Menon.

For a number of reasons including frustration with chemical agriculture, improved economic prospects and concern for nature, some farmers in Punjab are growing organic. Kavitha Kuruganti travelled around parts of the state to meet a number of farmers and dealers of organic products last month.

With the World Trade talks in limbo, the focus remains on aggressively pushing on the bilateral front. What could not be achieved through a multilateral trade regime, is now being pursued by the US through bilateral and regional deals. Devinder Sharma connects the dots.

The central government launched the Handloom Mark scheme in June 2006. The idea is to popularise handloom products in domestic as well as international markets and provide a guarantee for the buyer that the product is genuine. But will it work? D Narasimha Reddy looks at the challenges.

When technological change has the potential to put the livelihoods of hundreds of millions of people at risk, it must be regulated differently from other products in a free market. Blindly promoting innovation, as is now being done with genetically engineered crops, is self-defeating, writes Suman Sahai.

Claiming highest quality standards in the world when it comes to its own agricultural imports, the United States has no qualms in exporting sub-standard wheat to India. US participation in India's wheat procurement cannot be at the cost of India softening quarantine standards, says Devinder Sharma.

A range of criticisms raised at a recent seminar in Mumbai are a sufficient indication of the extent to which SEZs are being pushed as a government policy without any public consultation on their pros and cons. The seminar, on SEZs and their implications for urban planning, was held at the Rachana Sansad School of Architecture. Darryl D'Monte reports.

Three and half decades after a scientist demonstrated the idea, chappals made with areca leaf sheaths have hit the market from Kerala. Shrikrishna D writes about the early success and challenges.

The drying up of the dollar and the resultant plummet of the rupee reflects on the government's flawed economic strategy. Shyam Sekhar draws upon the famous business fable Who Moved My Cheese? to show the kind of behaviour and actions that could resolve the crisis now.

The India Shining advertisement campaign is a government-media joint venture, says P Sainath.

The seed, pesticide and fertilizer dealers are the new moneylenders of the AP countryside. The power this group wields is a vital factor in the ongoing crisis and continuing suicides of farmers. P Sainath continues his series.

Seeds, fertilizer and pesticide dealers are at the centre of a growing controversy in Andhra Pradesh. They are the new moneylenders to a peasantry strapped for credit. P Sainath concludes his series on farmer suicides in AP.

This is coffee territory, yet you cannot get the local brew in any restaurant here. Drop in at the Coffee Board in Kalpetta to enquire why this is so - and they offer you a cup of tea. P Sainath continues his series on the agrarian crisis in Kerala's Wayanad region.

The elite wants a society geared to deal with rare disasters but shows no urgency at all when it comes to the destruction of the livelihoods of millions by policy and human agency. P Sainath turns our consciences towards Mumbai's demolitions of tens of thousands of the homes of slum-dwellers.

In the villages, we demolish their lives, and in the city their homes. The smug indifference of the elite is matched by the governments they do not vote in, but control. P Sainath contrasts the tongue-lolling coverage of the Beautiful People with the studied indifference to the plight of millions.

As farm suicides in Vidarbha cross the 500-mark in under a year, families are holding funerals and weddings at the same time. Sometimes, on the same day. In moving shows of solidarity, very poor villagers are pitching in to help conduct the marriages and funerals of down-and-out neighbours, writes P Sainath.

After 15 years of a battering from hostile policies and governments, the world of the peasant has turned highly fragile. But the onus of changing is on the farmer. Not on those driving a cruel process and system, who have only contempt for ordinary folk, writes P Sainath.

There were three 9/11s in history. The New York one of 2001. The neo-liberal one of Chile 1973, and the non-violent one of 1906 - Gandhiji's satyagraha in South Africa. The authors of all three tried to change the world, but only the Mahatma's Weapon of Mass Disobedience helped change the world for the better, writes P Sainath.

Remember how keen so many of our national security experts were on sending our own troops into Iraq alongside those of the U.S.? Remember it was to have been such a good thing for India, asks P Sainath.

The nations that taught us that state meddling in economic matters was blasphemy are now nationalising banks, bailing out brigands, and pouring in funds to stop factories from closing down. But a few true believers are still holding out, against all the evidence, writes P Sainath.

Freebies for the IPL - at a time of savage food subsidy cuts for the poor - benefit four men who make the Forbes Billionaire List of 2010 and a few other, mere multi-millionaires, notes P Sainath.

The NREGS is restricted to a 100 days a year. The PDS is targeted to exclude 'APL' families. Only exploitation is universal, writes P Sainath.

Accessible public libraries bring strength to democracy, says Dilip D'Souza.

It’s like a scam unnoticed: even after access to over 45000 hectares of land, with massive tax exemptions and holidays, the SEZ experience has been a sorry story. Devinder Sharma questions the government’s economic reasoning and insists on accountability.

Suman Sahai discusses India's progressive legislation in the area of patents and protection for plant varieties.

Lawmakers at New Delhi recently passed the Right to Information Bill. The legislation provides for an information commission with powers to enforce transparency. An officer who delays disclosure will be liable to pay a penalty of Rs 250 for every day's delay. Prakash Kardaley is optimistic about the bill about to become law.

The UPA Government is attempting to achieve consensus and amend the Office of Profit law to allow select legislators to hold additional public offices. This is merely the climax of a larger trend, says Madabhushi Sridhar, of an already thin separation of power between executive and legislature, and of earlier efforts to dilute the Constitution.

Through registration and certification, the draft law seeks to promote quality seeds. But it's unclear if farmers can meet the standards set for commercial seeds. Controversially, the Bill also permits inspectors to carry out search and seize operations without warrants. M R Madhavan and Kaushiki Sanyal present a legislative brief.

In late January, the Justice J S Verma Committee recommended amendments to the India's criminal law so as to provide for quicker and more effective redress of sexual assault against women. PRS Legislative Research provides highlights.

Legislation to regulate and administer the country's water sector is a crying need, but the Draft National Water Framework Law recently submitted by the Alagh Committee is a disappointment. Shripad Dharmadhikary explains why.

The introduction of One Person Companies in the 2013 Companies Act eyes fast economic gains; however, as Shankar Jaganathan points out, it also calls for a more considered approach and provision of safeguards to protect the smaller creditors and employees.

The abhorrent remarks by actor-turned-Trinamool MP Tapas Pal, stating that he would get the women among his opponents raped, have left many outraged but drawn mild reactions from his party and no legal action at all. Shoma Chatterji exposes the milieu where leaders like Pal enjoy complete impunity.

The Prime Minister has received at least two letters in the past week from eminent economists, activists and citizen groups, raising their voices against dilution of the Rural Employment Guarantee Act, which seems imminent from recent announcements by the government.

Shalini Bhutani takes a close look at the law and ensuing policy on trade in India, and asks whether the regulatory framework on trade issues nurtures the idea of public consultation.

It’s a big, bad world out there on the social network and nearly 73 percent of urban children aged 8 to 13 are active on such sites. Can adult influencers keep the children safe online? Supriya Unni Nair explores.

High Courts and subordinate courts have been directed by the Supreme Court to expedite the disposing of criminal cases, yet cases languish for years in these courts. Harish Narasappa explains why it is so and how it can be fixed.

Does Indian media influence readers' opinion? As 2004 draws to a close, what lessons can be drawn from the NDA's much analysed India Shining campaign and the surprising elections outcome that followed? Arvind Rajagopal, the author of Politics after Television, talks to Chitrangada Choudhury.