-The Economic Times Minutes after taking oath on Monday as the new Madhya Pradesh chief minister, Kamal Nath sanctioned the waiver of farm loans in the state, as promised in the Congress election manifesto. Ostensibly, this is to relieve economic distress for farmers. But Nath himself was on record last week saying, “[Farmer distress] is why there are so many suicides.” Thus, the lightning waiver. Before anything else, let’s get the facts...
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Who is Agnes Kharshiing? -Rahul Karmakar
-The Hindu On November 8, Meghalaya’s Agnes Kharshiing and her associate Amita Sangma became the latest among 18 Right to Information activists in the northeastern region to have been either killed or assaulted or harassed. They were — as the police said — assaulted by a group of criminals at Tuber Sohshrieh in the coal- and limestone-rich East Jaintia Hills district. The spot where they were waylaid is not far from...
More »Aadhaar related inadequacies causing hunger and food insecurity in Jharkhand, allege Right to Food Campaign activists
-Press statement by Right to Food Campaign dated 19 November, 2018 At least two more persons died of starvation in Jharkhand in the last 25 days. This takes the total number of hunger deaths in the state to 17, since September 2017. The most recent victim is 45-year old Kaleshwar Soren who died of hunger and destitution on 11 November in Mahuatanr village of Jama block of Dumka district. A fact...
More »Poverty in all its faces -C Rangarajan & S Mahendra Dev
-The Indian Express Growth can alleviate poverty but its definition needs to expand to make any tangible difference on the ground. Amidst the din caused by the story of rising billionaires, the message on India’s poverty decline in the recent report of the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative has been lost. UNDP and Oxford University released the report on Global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) 2018. This report covers 105 countries. The...
More »Half-baked efforts at poverty reduction -Aasha Kapur Mehta
-The Hindu Business LineSustainable development goals are not being taken seriously. Anti-poverty schemes are not backed by funds or commitmentIndia is a signatory to the global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and is committed to achieving them. SDG1 aims to ?end poverty in all its forms everywhere? by 2030. It is true that poverty has declined in India. However, it is also true that an extremely large proportion of Indians suffers...
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