-The Times of India Laduben, 70, of Kuda village in Gujarat's Bhavnagar has waited for more than 20 years to be recognised as a 'farmer' in government records and become the rightful owner of the land she cultivated for years. Laduben's husband passed away when her three daughters were little and she was carrying her fourth child. Her in-laws got her name removed from the family varsai (inheritance document). Her brother-in-law insisted...

-The Economic Times NEW DELHI | MUMBAI: The government's spending in the budget aimed at bolstering rural development and providing higher income for farmers has not increased significantly and it may take at least two quarters to drive growth in the hinterland, consumer goods companies said. More than a third of daily-use branded products are sold in the Rural Areas, home to about 800 million people, whose purchasing behaviour depends on farm...

-TheWire.in Earning less than a living wage, migrant workers resort to living in the open, in shared and cramped rented rooms, or within the workplace. The Union Budget, announced on February 1, has committed to provide assistance for building 3.7 million houses in urban areas in 2018-19 under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY). However, this does little to resolve India’s urban housing crisis, which affects the poorest and most marginalised populations...

-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...

-The Indian Express Budget’s bias toward privately-delivered care undermines universal health coverage Until about four decades ago, specialist healthcare (secondary and tertiary care) was largely a province of public hospitals, and the private sector largely kept itself to the provision of generalist healthcare. This underwent a transformation with the rise of the advanced medical interventions comprising tertiary-care medicine like organ transplantation and open heart surgery. Given these highly-profitable medical advances, the private...