-The Telegraph Ranchi: If it takes a village to raise a child, it also takes a village to send her to school. A newly elected mukhiya of a panchayat in Bokaro district, has come up with a unique method to force villagers to send children to school regularly by withholding ration supplies and other welfare benefits from the family if the student doesn't clock 80 per cent attendance. Mukhiya Ajay Kumar Singh (40)...

-The Indian Express Government must address the stress in the rural economy, seen in falling wages and incomes, which could reverse recent progress in rural areas Last year in February, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had exhorted voters to vote for his party in the Delhi assembly election, claiming that his victory in the general election had brought luck to the country. Unfortunately, the voters of urban Delhi were not convinced and...

-Business Standard Conventional subsidy bill of Rs 2.44 lakh crore, or 1.7 per cent of GDP, in 2015-16 If lower tax rate is equivalent to subsidising, the National Democratic Alliance government is clearly targeting the 'well-off' segment of the population. Unlike the previous years, the Economic Survey 2015-16 has dealt with the issue of subsidy by giving only a box on petroleum subsidies, while devoting a chapter with nine-and-a-half pages to 'Bounties...

-The Indian Express The average annual MGNREGA spend in TN, for instance, is two-and-a-half times more than that for Bihar. Is the PMGSY more pro-poor compared to MGNREGA? Going by where monies under the two programmes get spent, the answer could well be yes. In a recent analysis, NC Saxena, Distinguished Fellow of the policy think-tank Skoch Development Foundation and former Secretary, PLAnning Commission, has noted how the expenditure on MGNREGA is...

-The Times of India Chennai: For long, they were dubbed as the villain among vegetation, sucking all the water from ground, spreading rapidly along the coast and degrading the environment. More than a century after Prosopis juliflora, a shrub, was introduced in Indian soil by the British, scientists are now trying to use its genes to engineer rice varieties that can withstand water scarcity. After coming up with rice grains that are...