-PTI New Delhi: The Government is likely to increase the budget allocation for the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) to ? 13,000 crore for 2018-19 from ?10,701 crore for the current financial year. The Union Budget for 2018-19 will be presented on February 1. Under the upgraded crop insurance scheme PMFBY that was launched early 2016, farmers pay very nominal premium and get full claim for damages. Budget allocation for the PMFBY could...

-The Indian Express Linking it to ration cards ends up denying poor their rightful entitlements In September 2017, 11-year-old Santoshi, resident of Simdega district of Jharkhand, succumbed to starvation. According to her mother, she died “asking for rice, but there was not a single grain at home”. She was deprived of her subsidised ration as her family’s ration card was cancelled because it was not linked to Aadhaar. Marandi in Jharkhand met...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: The Narendra Modi Government has met a key demand of single-brand retailers by relaxing a mandatory 30 per cent local sourcing condition. The change was announced along with the decision to allow 100 per cent foreign direct investment under the automatic route for single-brand retail trading, which will help companies like Apple to set up branded stores across India. Foreign retailers will now be permitted to set off their...

-Newsclick.in   PM Modi - who promised to create 1 crore jobs - is supremely indifferent to this crushing crisis.   In Jind district of Haryana, 8 posts of peon and one post of process server were advertised. Authorities were inundated with 14,836 applications for the former and 3662 for the latter. That’s about 2055 applicants per vacancy. Although the peon’s position required just class 10 eligibility, graduates, post graduates and even PhD...

-Livemint.com Sluggish wage growth, lower crop planting, fluctuating prices paint a dismal picture for farmers and the agriculture sector New data released by the Government on rural wages, crop prices and sowing of winter crops reveals that rural distress is worsening. Planting of wheat, the main winter crop, between October and early January was 5% lower than a year ago due to lower sowing in Madhya Pradesh by close to a million hectares;...