-The Times of India CHENNAI: Livelihood issues have been pushing high school and higher-secondary pass-outs of Tamil Nadu to head out to foreign shores. At least one out of every 20 households in the state, predominantly along the coastal belt, have migrant workers in South East Asian and Arab countries, said a sample study by social scientists here. The average cost of migration for a person is estimated at Rs 95,800. This...

-Business Standard Subsidised farm credit also goes to companies There has been a massive surge in institutional agricultural credit over the past decade. But the benefit of that has not reached as much to farmers as it has to agri-businesses and companies branching out into agriculture-related activities. This is clear from an analytical study of agricultural credit by scholars at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, based on a Reserve Bank of...

Amidst brouhaha over the importance of MGNREGA, the recently released 68th Round national sample survey (NSS) report clears the air whether the MGNREGA had been beneficial to employment of persons from Scheduled Castes (SCs), Scheduled Tribes (STs) and Other Backward Classes (OBCs). Based on a survey of nearly 59,700 households in rural areas of India, the NSS 68th Round data shows that the proportion of persons who got job in...

-DNA Broken promises apart, a regular income for farmers is extremely essential There is trouble on the farm front. With untimely rains accompanied by hailstorms and strong winds showing no signs of relenting, further deepening the prevailing agrarian crisis; and with the spate of farmer suicides on the rise, agriculture faces its worst-ever crisis. While the rising number of farmer suicides is only a reflection of how fragile the agrarian economy...

-The Hindu Reviving the Farm Income Insurance Scheme could be the best tool for small and marginal farmers to fight falling prices in an increasingly globalised marketplace. Data from the recently held national sample survey Organisation (NSSO) survey show that close to 60 per cent of rural households are dependent on agriculture for their livelihood. More than half of them are at risk of defaulting on their debts with either banks or...