-The Business Standard   One of Sewa's triumphs is formation of the Mahila SEWA Sahakari Bank In April 10 this year, SEWA, the Self-Employed Women’s Association, which prefers to describe itself as a cooperative or trade union rather than a microfinance institution (MFI) (though it straddles both spheres), with a membership of 1.3 million women, completed 40 years of its existence. This gives us an ideal opportunity to review its historic contribution to...

On Saturday, over 40 hours after the “biggest encounter” involving security forces and Maoists in Chhattisgarh, bodies of 19 alleged “hardcore Maoists and Jan Militia members” lay outside their huts in the three villages of Sarkeguda, Kottaguda and Rajpenta in Bijapur. Villagers alleged no government official had spoken to them or visited their homes, and no autopsies had been carried out on the bodies. Several bodies appeared to have been brutalised. This...

As the monsoon rains continue to play truant over much of the country, concerns about the fate of India’s rain-fed agricultural sector this year means that lakhs of Farm Labourers could be forced to look for other options. Anticipating an increase in demand for the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) jobs this season, the Centre has indicated its willingness to sanction additional funds – to the tune...

PATIALA/SANGRUR: Everyone agrees that theNREGA is causing a shortage of agricultural labour. Everyone, that is, except the workers themselves. For the last two years, the "success" of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (commonly referred to as NREGA) in reducing the number of men migrating out of India's poorest states has become something of a truism. In Punjab, this has resulted in dozens of news articles about the shortage...

-The Hindu Business Line VISAKHAPATNAM: Farmers in Visakhapatnam district are being encouraged to rediscover and adopt age-old agricultural practices, give up use of chemical fertilisers and pesticides, and grow organic crops, according to Mr P. Ramana, district manager of Community Managed Sustainable Agriculture project. He said in an interview that the project, being implemented by the District Rural Development Agency (DRDA), is meant to support poor farmers to adopt sustainable agricultural practices...