-Livemint.com The government had to lower the import duty on edible oils several times in recent months to tame food inflation NEW DELHI: The government is set to launch an oilseed mission to boost domestic production of oilseeds and reduce import dependence, said NITI Aayog member, agriculture, Ramesh Chand. India currently makes around ₹1 trillion worth of edible oil imports every year or nearly half of its demand. The proposed scheme was devised after...

-India Spend More than 50% of rural households are reported to have functional household tapwater connections under the Jal Jeevan Mission. But does this translate into availability of water for the rural poor? Banda, Baghpat and Bengaluru: "We drink whatever quality water we can get," says Munni Devi, a Dalit worker who lives in Banda district of Uttar Pradesh (UP). "Of course we get sick, but we don't have any other choice....

-Down to Earth Southwest monsoon could switch into a drought-prone mode, lasting decades in the future India witnessed repeated multi-year droughts over the last thousand years, predominately before 1871, a new study has predicted. This contrasts with the drought history of the post-1871 era. The country saw only one instance of a three-year-long drought during this period, from 1985-1987, the study published September 19, 2022, in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy...

-The Hindu Frontline The story of Manuguru in eastern Telangana tells us how this sleight of hand is worked. Manuguru, a small town in eastern Telangana, set a record in April 2022 collecting Rs.1.59 crore in property taxes. It even made it to the list of top performing municipalities in the State by achieving more than 95 per cent of its annual property tax collection target. However, the fact is that Manuguru,...

Contrary to the rising economic distress on the ground since the last few years, the official press release related to the fourth Annual Report on the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) at first glance seems to give a rosy picture about the employment situation in India.  Defined as the percentage of persons unemployed among the persons in the labour force, the unemployment rate in usual status (principal activity status + subsidiary economic activity status)...