-IndiaSpend.com Mumbai: Kerala ranked first out of seven states for migrant friendly policies on the Interstate Migrant Policy Index 2019 (IMPEX 2019), an index compiled by India Migration Now, a Mumbai-based nonprofit, which analyses state-level policies for the integration of out-of-state migrants. Maharashtra ranked second with a score of 42 out of 100 compared to Kerala’s 62, and punjab came in third with a score of 40. Internal migration, both within a...

In the financial year 2017-18 when tractor sales touched new heights, it was said by many of the NDA (viz. National Democratic Alliance) government supporters that rural demand has revived on account of adequate monsoon rainfall and higher minimum support prices for crops. Many economists and newspaper columnists also denied the existence of any rural distress. An alternative perspective, however, was also presented by rural economists like Dr. Himanshu who teaches...

-TheWire.in Women, the report has found, would be molested and threatened with rape by male personnel. Trigger warning: The article contains graphic descriptions of physical and sexual torture which might be triggering to survivors. Electric shocks, bricks hung from private parts, threatened with rape, sexually assaulted, hung naked, hung upside down — these are some of the methods that Haryana Police has been undertaking in dealing with prisoners, both men and women, a...

-The Indian Express Kurki is attachment of farmers’ land by banks or arhtiyas/sahukars/traders (commission agents and private money lenders) in the event of non-payment of loan or debt. Two years after punjab government notified a ban on kurkis or attachment of farmers’ land by banks in the event of their defaulting on loan payments, several such cases are taking place daily across districts in the state’s Malwa region. Here’s why. * What...

-The Hindu Rice cultivation in punjab, which thrived in the past due to the easy availability of water resources and free supply of electricity to farmers, is under considerable strain now. Vikas Vasudeva examines how overexploitation has made groundwater not only scarce but also increasingly alkaline. Gurmeet Singh, 60, a tall land-owning farmer in Bhattiwal Khurd village, which is located in punjab’s Sangrur district, has yet again planted the water-guzzling paddy crop...