-The Indian Express The NDA Government’s approach towards MGNREGA — the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act — has differed from that of the previous UPA regime in one significant way: There is greater emphasis now in the building of “individual household” assets, as opposed to “community” assets, under the scheme that provides 100 days of guaranteed wage employment annually to every rural household whose adult members volunteer to do...

-Financial Express If the Government implements the assured minimum support price at one and a half times the production cost, as promised, it would jack up consumer prices of jowar and distort the market dynamics of the “poor man’s cereal”. Besides, the measure would also dampen exports, analysts warn. At 150% of the cost (A2+FL), the MSP for jowar for the next season could be at least 37% higher than the...

-Livemint.com Rainfall will be 97% of the 50-year average with a 54% probability that rains will be normal to above normal, IMD said in its first stage, long-range monsoon forecast New Delhi: Rainfall is likely to be normal during the June-to-September southwest monsoon season, the Government’s weather office said on Monday. “For the third consecutive year, India will have a normal monsoon. There is very less probability of experiencing a deficit monsoon. We...

-The Hindu In recent months, many Adivasi villages in Jharkhand have put up giant plaques declaring their gram sabha as the only sovereign authority and banning ‘outsiders’ from their area. Amarnath Tewary reports on a political movement that is gathering steam across the State’s tribal belt It is high noon at the Government middle school in the heart of Maoist-affected Arki block in Jharkhand’s Khunti district. Over 100 Adivasi villagers have gathered...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Amid growing public outrage over the Kathua and Unnao incidents, a collective of retired civil servants has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi calling the current situation a “moment of existential crisis” in which the Government’s response would determine whether the nation could “overcome the crisis of constitutional values, of governance and the ethical order”. In a strongly worded letter that sought to pin the blame...