The sea change that India’s national scheme for rural employment guarantee has accomplished is hard to fathom, its vastness touching the lives or more than 100 million people. The National Rural Employment Guarantee Act of 2005 (NREGA, subsequently renamed after Mahatma Gandhi, or MGNREGA) was a landmark in Indian legislation. Under the act, as of April 2008, for the first time in India’s history, all rural citizens have a legal right...

The decision to defer cotton export registration by one month – from October 1 to November 1 – may help the textile companies in the short term because of sufficient availability, but there are concerns on how long that would last. Arrivals of cotton are uncertain across India with farmers apprehensive about the yield due to inclement weather. The early varieties of cotton from Punjab and Haryana have also been affected...

Just three days after the Jaypee group resumed work on the Yamuna Expressway in Aligarh’s Tappal area in Uttar Pradesh after the last month’s agitation, the farmers again brought it to a halt on Tuesday evening, demanding compensation for the crops on the land acquired for the project, return of the land to farmers who were against acquisition, and withdrawal of the cases registered against them during the agitation. The immediate...

The Centre was not releasing Rs 1,700 crore in NREGA funds to West Bengal, Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee claimed today. "Despite placing full account for expenditure under the NREGA scheme in the state, the central government is yet to give Rs 1,700 crore," Bhattacharjee told a panchayat workers' rally here. "They are giving Rs 100 crore or Rs 150 crore in phases, but have withheld the main amount," he said. Ministers of state...

The sugarcane growers in Orissa’s Ganjam district have urged the authorities of Aska Cooperative Sugar Industry (ACSI) to fix the cane price at ' 2500 per quintal at the field level during the coming crushing season. The factory authorities had paid '1700 per quintal to the cane growers last year. The sugarcane farmers want increase in cane prices to be announced before the start of the crushing season which begins from...