-Hindustan Times If you are a fence sitter on the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme (MNREGA), not sure whether it is good or bad, here is data to confuse you some more. As payments for jobs under the scheme remain sluggish, there has been a 60% increase in households registering for the programme in the August to November period this year. The higher registration of households is expected to push...

-The Hindu The WTO Nairobi meet — which was expected to produce by noon local time (2.30 PM IST) on Friday a Ministerial Declaration to liberalise global trade — stretched into overtime with the developing and the developed world failing to bridge their differences over farm issues as well as on whether to continue with the ongoing 14-year-old Doha Round talks. Hectic parleys were on between member countries, during the last day...

-The Asian Age It’s a huge story. And it’s not getting the kind of media attention it deserves. It’s a story about India’s farmers. It’s a story about the ongoing agrarian crisis in the country in the wake of two successive years of drought. If one looks only at the figures of growth of gross domestic product which tend to make headlines in financial publications, there’s no story for agriculture comprises...

-Business Standard Readies White Paper on agriculture, energy, manufacturing and social development Taking forward its project of creating a national agenda in consultation with the states, the NITI Aayog will soon come out with policy papers on critical sectors such as agriculture, infrastructure, energy, manufacturing and social development. These strategic documents incorporate suggestions from state government and seek to address their concerns. Each White Paper will not only highlight key challenges facing the...

-The Hindu In a bid to keep pulses price under check, that went sky-rocketing during past few months, the Centre has now decided to create buffer stock of pulses. The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) on Wednesday gave its approval for creation of buffer stock of pulses. The buffer stock will be created in current year itself. In its meeting held here, the CCEA has approved procurement of about 50,000 ton pulses...