-The Times of India Jaipur: At Jawaja in Ajmer and Bhim in Rajsamand, workers associated with the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) met in large numbers to speak of their problems. It was on February 2, 2006, that NREGA was first implemented in 200 districts of the country. Friday, thus, marked the 12th anniversary of the launch of this programme. People sought not just 100 days as at...

-Press Release by National Alliance of People's Movements (NAPM) The Delhi Solidarity Group (DSG) has come out with a critique of the Union Budget 2018-19. Please click here to access the report by DSG entitled: Issues of Marginalized Sections: Analysis from the perspectives of Handloom, Fisheries, Dalits, Adivasis, Forest, Agriculture, Banking and Financing, Urban Housing, rural development, Land & Higher Education. The following civil society organizations have contributed for the preparation...

-Press Release by National Alliance of People's Movements (NAPM) New Delhi: Calling this year’s union budget ‘just an exercise in manipulation of numbers,’ veteran activist Medha Patkar asked, “When the major decisions like the demonetisation and GST are taken between two budgets then what’s the relevance of the Budget?,” at a panel discussion on the analysis of this year’s union budget with a special focus on Handloom, Fisheries, Dalits, Adivasis, Forest,...

-The Economic Times blog Word has it that World Bank economists use “obviously fabricated” data from time to time. These are not Sitaram Yechury or Medha Patkar’s words, but those of Paul Romer, former chief economist of the World Bank, in a recent email exchange reported by Financial Times. Romer retracted them later, but this “may not end the controversy”, as The Economist mildly put it. This is not the first time...

-Down to Earth India requires policy changes to make millets an effective tool against malnutrition Nutrient-rich millets, which have been a crucial part of human diet since ancient times, have lost their importance due to globally commercialised agronomic practices to produce more foodgrains. Though awareness has been growing among the public in the recent years about the health benefits of a millet-based diet—high fibre, low carbohydrate, protein-rich and gluten-free—gaps persist on several...