-NITI Aayog Working Paper, ISBN: 978-81-953811-7-3 Abstract -  The importance of agriculture in an economy usually declines as it climbs the development ladder. Raising agriculture productivity has been known to be an important precursor. Labour productivity in agriculture can either be increased by higher land productivity or higher land availability per farmer and mechanisation. In India, however, the dramatic increase in land productivity through industrial farming has caused severe environmental damage and...

-Financial Express Crop loss, lower procurement to deplete FCI stocks; local supplies may suffice for PDS, free-ration schemes At Punjab’s Rajpura mandi, private traders are busy buying the wheat crop brought in by farmers at marginally above the minimum support price (MSP). Traders have been super-active in the mandi, one of the largest centres of wheat trade in the country, and their daily purchases often exceed the official procurement by the state-run...

-The Hindu It helps arrive at estimates of poverty levels The All-India Household Consumer Expenditure Survey, usually conducted by the National Statistical Office (NSO) every five years, is set to resume this year after a prolonged break. India hasn’t had any official estimates on per capita household spending, used to arrive at estimates of poverty levels in different parts of the country and to review economic indicators like the Gross Domestic Product (GDP),...

-Scroll.in Anganwadi staff are vital to ensuring the wellbeing of India’s children. Yet in 2006, the Supreme Court refused to recognise them as government employees. The government of Karnataka needed a hundred women. It was 1982, the new Integrated Child Development Services scheme was about to launch in the state, and according to the advertisement in the local newspaper, these work opportunities were available specifically for women who had completed Class 10. Ameenabi...

-The New Indian Express Women in Chinnaparakudy tribal settlement find a source of livelihood, reports  Nejma Sulaiman IDUKKI: Many tribal hamlets in Idukki still follow the primitive practice of secluding menstruating girls and women for up to a week in special huts called ‘valaimapura’. At the Chinnaparakudy settlement in Adimaly panchayat, however, the ‘menstrual hut’ has been converted into a hub of creativity, one that offers a livelihood for women.  Earlier, like in...