-Press Information Bureau (Ministry of Agriculture) As per Census conducted by Registrar General of India, the total number of agricultural workers in the country comprising cultivators and agricultural labourers increased from 234.1 million (127.3 million cultivators and 106.8 million agricultural labourers) in 2001 to 263.0 million (118.7 million cultivators and 144.3 million agricultural labourers) in 2011. As per Agriculture Census 2010-11, about 85% of the operational holdings accounting for about 44% of...

-Outlook Sikkim has become the only state in the country to achieve more than 100 per cent sanitation in rural and urban households, schools, sanitary complexes and Aanganwadi centres. All 6,10,577 inhabitants in Sikkim have latrines with high sanitation and hygiene standards. The Himalayan state has constructed 98,043 individual household latrines against the target of 87,014 till January, thus achieving 112.67 per cent target under Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan scheme implemented by Union Ministry...

-The Hindu Three months after the Ministry of Rural Development launched ‘Kaam Maango Abhiyan', aimed at capturing demand effectively for its flagship scheme Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), the impact is beginning to become clear in several select districts of the country. The focus has been in six districts - Sitapur (Uttar Pradesh), Nashik (Maharashtra), Raichur (Karnataka), Katihar (Bihar), West Singhbum (Jharkhand) and Sundergarh (Odisha). The campaign covered...

-Live Mint The scheme represents Rs.2.3 trillion spent on wasteful rural consumption This week marked the eighth anniversary of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government's key rural intervention, launched in 200 districts initially in February 2006. To the extent that such populist schemes helped raise wages without raising productivity. They have contributed more to inflation than to rural wealth. Worse, such schemes have...

-Outlook Bhopal: Madhya Pradesh government has approved an ambitious plan to provide electricity in 44 Naxal-hit villages of the state with the help of solar energy. Under the plan, 44 Naxal-affected villages of Balaghat, Shahdol, Umaria, Sidhi and Singrauli districts will be electrified by solar energy with an investment of Rs 37.62 crore, official said today. The plan was approved at a meeting chaired by state Energy Minister and New and Renewable Energy...