-The Indian Express The failure of populist rural credit schemes stems primarily from poor understanding of farm indebtedness in the first place. From the 1970s, a lot of private investment in tube-well irrigation, farm mechanisation and allied agricultural activities took place with bank credit support. After the establishment of National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) in 1982, institutional credit flows not only accelerated, but also exhibited diversification to fund livestock...

-The Hindu Business Line Basmati, bovine exports have already plateaued New Delhi: With export earnings from basmati and bovine meat — the flagship agricultural and processed export sectors — hitting a plateau, the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) is exploring newer avenues, Chairman Devendra Kumar Singh said on Wednesday. According to data available with APEDA, export earnings from agricultural and processed food products have drastically dropped from $21.5 billion...

-The Hindu BJP-ruled Uttar Pradesh and NDA-ruled Bihar were among the worst performers The Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation on Tuesday released the findings of the survey of 1.4 lakh rural households, undertaken by the Quality Council of India (QCI) between May and June this year. The survey, covering 4626 villages across all States and Union territories, claimed that 62.45% of the households had access to a toilet. The survey also pointed that...

-Governance Now Only 20 percent wage payments are time bound under NREGA, says a new study A new research on the implementation of national rural employment guarantee law (NREGA) disputes the way central government measures and offers the delay in compensation to workers. A group of three independent researchers claim that the figures in the NREGA management information system (MIS) have been manipulated to only partially calculate the duration of wage...

-NationalHeraldIndia.com Why is the Centre delaying in releasing wages under MGNREGA to non-BJP-ruled states compared to BJP-ruled states? What explains the delay of just six days in making payments under MGNREGA in BJP-ruled Madhya Pradesh but a delay of 89 days in Kerala? In both the cases authorities in the two states had processed the work payment order within the stipulated 15 days, which indicated that the states had done due diligence...