The state of Assam alone produces nearly 53 percent of the total tea production in India. Around one million workers are engaged in the tea industry in India. Tea – as a commercial product first cultivated and expanded by the British – is an outcome of the toil and struggle of the Adivasi workers or indigenous people of central and east India who were made to migrate to Assam under extremely brutal conditions, and they form one of the most oppressed communities in the state. This section of the population has been waging struggles to protect its rights in the state. Tea production is a labor-intensive enterprise in which trade unions should ideally play an assertive role at every stage. However, trade unions in the tea estates are gradually being questioned on their functionality in shaping industrial relations and upholding the rights of the workers. The key respondents, comprising plantation workers, trade union members, owners of the tea estates, and management staff, belong to the major tea producing districts of Assam: Dibrugarh, Sibsagar, Jorhat, Golaghat, Sonitpur, and also the lesser producing district, Kamrup. The present study ascertains the role of trade unions in dealing with the key issues faced by plantation workers, such as non-inclusion of women workers and casual workers and its failure to play an effective role in the negotiation or collective bargaining process with management and the state. It is observed that the trade unions function under the principles of the political parties and acquisition of political power is their sole motto.

This paper aims to capture the pattern of collaboration operating in the field of rice crop research in India. The present study employs both bibliometric techniques as well as social network analysis to analyze the publication output indexed by Scopus database in rice crop research during 1995-2014. The study finds that Indian rice scientists prioritize collaborative research practices. Indian rice scientists demonstrate a preference for mega-authored publications. The increasing trend in the mean values of Degree of Collaboration, Collaboration Coefficient and Modified Collaboration Coefficient indicate that the proportion of multi-or mega-authored papers are accelerating steadily. Moreover, the increase in international collaboration indices manifests that the rice scientists in India have been gradually broadening the ambit of research collaboration to cope with the pace, scope and profoundness of transformations at the global level. The social network analysis of agencies reveals that the State Agricultural Universities, Indian Council of Agricultural Research and International Institutes have emerged as core collaborators in the field of rice crop research. Moreover, weak collaboration profile of industry indicates that although rice crop research has shifted from 'Mode 1' to 'Mode 2' form of knowledge production but its optimization is yet to be realized.

The construal of genetically modified (gm) crops is not just scientific or technological, but also inherently political. This article attempts to understand the implications of proprietary technologies in agriculture in India where two gm crops namely Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) cotton and Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) brinjal are analyzed. It critically examines how different normative institutional frameworks and ideologies are deeply embedded in the way diverse actors select their research questions. Further, an attempt is made to unfurl the debates on the policies of biotechnology, in general and Bt crops, in particular. It then moves onto capturing the networking between the government, academia and industry with reference to gm crops, particularly Bt cotton and Bt brinjal. In-depth personal interviews with 81 plant biotechnologists in the government, academic, and private research and development (R&D) institutions in India were conducted to ascertain the views of various stakeholders about Bt crops in agriculture in India.

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The present study, from a sociology of science and technology perspective, captures the transformation in plant biotechnology that has emerged with the advent of new agricultural technology, and how it is conceived of and practiced by the community of plant breeders in selected scientific institutions under the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (icar) and the State Agricultural University (sau) setups located in an agriculturally backward state like Bihar. Focusing on a galaxy of scientists engaged in plant science research in Bihar, the present study captures the responses from plant breeders on the questions surrounding genetically modified crops, intellectual property rights and other contentious issues related to new agricultural technology, especially plant biotechnology. An attempt is also made to explore the nature of scientific collaboration taking place in plant breeding and the motivations of such collaborative practices. The purpose of this study is to understand how plant breeding in Bihar is experientially constituted and politically negotiated along the contours and at the boundaries of national and international development operations, policies, extension agents, and the everyday lives, livelihoods, and aspirations of farmers.