-Livemint.com Slogans, vision statements and acronyms are unlikely to be of any help to those in distress As the details of the mega fiscal package of ₹20 trillion announced by the prime minister are slowly being revealed by the finance minister (FM), it is increasingly becoming clear that it has less to do with the immediate crisis of lives and livelihood and more to do with the long-term agenda of reforms and...

Preliminary results of an ongoing study by the Centre for Sustainable Employment of Azim Premji University (APU) indicate that the lockdown has had a devastating impact on the livelihood security of the working people. The survey is currently being conducted across the country by the Centre for Sustainable Employment along with civil society organisations. Impact on livelihoods Analysis of preliminary data collected through telephonic interviews between 13th April, 2020 and 9th May, 2020...

-Hindustan Times Sync traditional knowledge and science to build resilience A recent report by the Union ministry of earth sciences (MOES), Observed Rainfall Variability and Changes, has found that seven Indian states — Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal, Himachal Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya and Nagaland — have witnessed significant decreasing trends in annual rainfall in the last 30 years. Alarmingly, many other parts of the country have also seen an increase in...

-Frontline.in The Budget lacks any serious effort to address the main issues of unemployment, agrarian distress and falling incomes, revealing a high level of official insensitivity. A Budget during a time of recession, increasing unemployment, agrarian distress, falling incomes, demand constraint and malnutrition would have done well to first acknowledge the mess that policies have created and then taken steps to provide employment, boost rural incomes, increase purchasing power and thereby demand. Coming...

-Press release by Alliance for Sustainable & Holistic Agriculture (ASHA) dated 1st February, 2020 New Delhi, February 1st 2020: A thorough analysis of the Budget shows that even though the Budget speech spoke much about Agriculture and Rural sector and a 16-point program, the allocations for the Rural Economy were in fact slashed in this Budget compared to previous year. The Budget allocation for Agriculture, Allied sectors and Irrigation in 2020-21...