-PTI NEW DELHI: Most farmers in India are aware of MGNREGA scheme but not about the minimum support price (MSP) for crops fixed by the Centre to avoid distress sale, according to a study by research body CSDS. Also, 76 per cent of farmers surveyed prefer to do some other work rather than farming, while 60 per cent of them want their children to migrate to cities, the Centre for the Study...

-The Hindustan Times Jorhat (Assam): In 2006, ten years after she started selling coconut ladoos to bail her husband out of a debt trap, Meghali Bora met Kangkaan Pegu in Majuli, a 527 sq km island in river Brahmaputra off Jorhat town 305 km east of Guwahati. The latter suffered from bipolar disorder, a manic-depressive illness marked by suicidal tendencies. Bora taught Kangkaan her conquer-adversity mantra: if your life is in a...

-Live Mint Mint examines why millions of women are missing from farms, factories, colleges, and offices in India, which has one of the lowest ratios of working women in the world Mumbai: Every monsoon, minivans ferrying women labourers can be seen making their way from the small sleepy town of Wardha to Waifad village, 18 kilometres away. Urban workers from Wardha have come to occupy an integral part of Waifad's farm...

-The Hindustan Times A report commissioned by the ministry of rural development has confirmed the findings of an HT field investigation - published on December 29, 2013 - that delay in payment of wages under MGNREGA was a major contributor to suicides among workers in Maharashtra. The report by the Committee of Experts (CoE) said: "Though the state government has made the claim that it is unfair to link the deaths...

-DNA The government's lack of focus on agriculture shows its lopsided priorities. In the coming months, about 1.5 crore farmers who quit agriculture in the past seven years, are likely to trudge back into the villages. In normal circumstances such a massive reverse migration - from the cities back to the villages - would have been a sign of inclusive growth. But economists are taking this U-turn as a sign of...