-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Nine states seem to be holding back India's race to achieve full rural connectivity by 2019 with Assam, Jammu & Kashmir and Jharkhand topping the list, according to a central government assessment. The fear is that the ambitious scheme may have to be pushed beyond 2019, a politically significant date as the Modi government will be up for re-election then, despite recent improvements having taken daily...
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'Feminisation' of rural job scheme: Women outnumber men in MGNREGS -Saubhadra Chatterji
-Hindustan Times New Delhi: Women outnumber men in increasing proportions in India’s rural job scheme, a trend experts call the “feminisation” of the programme. With changes in the labour environment — more men migrating for better wages — more women are working as labourers for additional household income. The scheme, launched in 2006, had less than 20% women in its workforce in the initial years but after a decade, 56% of jobs...
More »Paradox of plenty -Neelkanth Mishra
-The Indian Express Farm incomes may not revive despite good monsoon. There are new challenges for policymakers. India’s per capita calorie demand has been falling for at least the last 30 years. Most people do a double-take when they hear that. One can’t debate the fact much: National Sample Surveys every five to seven years have documented this. What we can debate are the reasons behind this: In their 2009 paper Angus...
More »Rainfed farming: A watershed moment -Harish Damodaran
-The Indian Express A Pulses Revolution is possible even in the most backward districts, as a PPP project in Bundelkhand has shown. Damoh (Madhya Pradesh): Zahim Khan has two major worries, as he surveys the urad (black gram) crop on 14 out of the 20-acres land being jointly cultivated by him with 13 other farmers. The immediate concern is rains. Damoh district in Madhya Pradesh’s Bundelkhand region, of which his village Somkheda is...
More »No rain mercy: Floods, lightning claim 74 lives
-The Times of India NEW DELHI: The flood situation in Assam, where two more people were killed on Sunday, and Bihar remained grim, while the death toll in lightning strikes in Odisha in the last 24 hours climbed from 32 to 45, taking the overall number of casualties to 74. In Assam, 29 people have so far died as more than 16 lakh people remain affected in 21 districts. About 150 rural...
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