-Down to Earth Productivity of released varieties of pulses is much lower than the notified variety of lower-yielding ones  When it comes to pulses, India stands out: The country produces a quarter of all pulses in the world and consumes 27 per cent — more than any other. India is also the largest importer of pulses. Madhya Pradesh is a major pulse-producing state in the country; it caters to 32 per cent of...

The pandemic's first wave had a devastating impact on the livelihoods of rural workers in Bihar (including the self-employed) last year, according to a survey based research, jointly done by economists from Centre for Development Economics and Sustainability at Monash University, Australia and the New Delhi-based Institute for Human Development. A recent press note issued by the authors of the study shows that almost 94.4 percent of the households participating...

-IndiaTomorrow.net NEW DELHI: Many people were surprised when Union Home Minister Amit Shah was given the additional charge of the newly created Ministry of Cooperation. The Cooperation Ministry was earlier a part of the Ministry of Agriculture. But it was no amazement for those acquainted with how the cooperative movement plays a role in politics – state as well as national politics – and how BJP used the cooperatives from the state...

-The Hindu In the pandemic, there aren’t enough buyers and government procurement is delayed For the second year running, forest dwellers across Odisha have been deprived of the right price for the Non-Timber Forest Produce (NTFP) gathered by them. With the COVID-19 pandemic disrupting local economies across the country, the NTFP market in Odisha has also suffered due to the absence of adequate buyers this year. “Last year, when the COVID-19 pandemic surfaced, forest...

With the rise in Covid-19 daily new cases and daily new deaths since March this year, media reports (please click here and here) on migrant workers returning back to their native places (i.e. places of origin) from migration destinations (i.e. workplaces likes cities and large industrial towns to where the informal and low skilled workers from the marginalised sections of the society migrate seasonally, and sometimes for a longer duration,...