-The Indian Express Among South Asian countries, India fares better than only Afghanistan which is at 152. India ranks 130 out of 155 countries in the Gender Inequality Index (GII) for 2014, way behind Bangladesh and Pakistan that rank 111 and 121 respectively, according to data in the United National Development Programme’s latest Human Development Report (HDR) 2015. Among South Asian countries, India fares better than only Afghanistan which is at 152. The...

-Economic and Political Weekly Drawing from the 60th and 68th rounds of National Sample Survey Office, this study evaluates the impact of different (social, commercial and target-oriented) health insurance schemes on access to healthcare use, and cost of care and financing of medical expenses. The results show that though these schemes promote access to healthcare, they also increase the costs manifold. The commercial insurers have not been effective at pooling financial...

-Livemint.com A NSSO report shows there are significant caste-based differences in economic status of agricultural households in India New Delhi: Social divisions in India’s countryside are a well-established fact. A National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) report released last week shows there are significant caste-based differences in economic status of agricultural households in India. Unsurprisingly, lower castes are the worst-off by most yardsticks. A large majority of India’s farmers are finding it difficult...

-Business Standard Unless irrigation expands, agriculture will not be drought-proof Even as India celebrates the golden jubilee of the Green Revolution, the National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) has come out with data indicating that nearly 70 per cent of farmers subsist on economically unviable farm holdings of less than a hectare in size. Over one-fifth of farm households report salaried employment, and not farming, as the prime source of their income. Around...

-Business Standard Looking at economics behind agricultural households, a survey notes that 68.3% of such households still relied on agriculture as primary source of income Rural distress is a known story but a survey by NSSO has revealed the alarming level of fragmentation in farmland and unavailability of jobs. As many as 69 per cent agricultural households own less than a hectare of farmland each, making farming unviable and forcing migration to...