-Down to Earth Govt has made tall claims on NREGA implementation; but it is neither keen on providing dignified wages nor allocating adequate funds for the scheme The Union Budget for 2019-20 ignored issues of social security and employment and did not show any intent to boost rural India. The Budget tabled by Nirmala Sitharaman on July 5, 2019 was a disappointment for 13 crore rural households dependent on the Mahatma Gandhi...

-Business Standard He said India's food security was expected to sustain for a long time, as foodgrains production was growing much faster rate as compared to the population growth NITI Aayog member Ramesh Chand on Tuesday said public perception of growing harmful effects of chemicals in food cannot be addressed by organic farming or zero budget farming alone. Chand said the plant protection industry should play an active role in assuring consumers...

-The Times of India Salem: Salem Periyar University and University of Hertfordshire, United Kingdom, have jointly conducted a research on the public distribution system (PDS) in selected rural areas of Salem district since 2017. At the end of two-year research, the team has found that the PDS has great support among its users in rural areas and contributed positively to food security Vice-chancellor of Periyar University P Kolandaivel said, “In the coming months,...

-Business Standard/ India Spend For the first time since Independence, India saw a shift of surplus labour from agriculture to the non-agricultural sectors Although income mobility improved country-wide in the seven years to 2012, the progress was unequal between states, while the likelihood of children pursuing the same occupation as their fathers declined for those employed in the low productivity agricultural sector, noted a January 2019 study on economic mobility. Farmers’ children were...

-Odisha Economy Discussion Series-2, April 2019, Nabakrushna Choudhury Centre for Development Studies, Bhubaneswar Purpose – The recently launched KALIA scheme of the Government of Odisha is a massive direct benefit transfer (DBT) scheme aimed at improving the condition of around three million farm households along with that of landless cultivators, sharecroppers, agricultural labourers, and vulnerable households. However, evaluations of the impacts of the scheme are likely to face difficulties in the...