-The Indian Express Wage growth in agriculture outpacing that in industry is a bad sign for the economy Against a 63 per cent rise in industrial wages in a 10-year period, agricultural wages in the harvesting season have risen by 117 per cent, according to data released by the agriculture ministry this week. The difference in the rise in wages in the two sectors, from comparable bases, is not a statistical artefact....

-The Economic Times As the monsoon plays truant, the tragic face of our agrarian distress, suicide by farmers, is likely to manifest again in several parts of the country. A state like Maharashtra, where large acreages of a cash crop like cotton are grown under rain-fed conditions, is particularly vulnerable to such vagaries of weather and has, for long, remained the 'suicide capital' of the country. There is credible data to show...

-The Times of India India's wheat and rice production can be increased by over 60 percent, sugarcane production by 41 per cent and cotton production by 73 per cent by 2050 - without cutting down forests or increasing farmed area in any other way. Sounds like a dream? A study, published in the scientific journal Nature last week, shows that this is indeed possible. In fact it is possible to feed the...

-The Indian Express Gujarat is growing, but its children remain undernourished Even as Gujarat surpasses many Indian states with impressive investments in infrastructure, agriculture, and general economic growth, little is known about how this growth is affecting the state’s social indicators. The recent buzz about the causes of undernutrition in Gujarat raise a number of issues about social and cultural preferences. However, this can be interpreted only in the broader context of...

-The Hindu An anthology of independent evaluations of MGNREGA shows that it has provided income security, improved health, narrowed the gender gap and created useful assets   In the midst of the debates that prevail in this country over the feasibility of the world’s largest public works programme, the MGNREGA Sameeksha — an anthology of independent research studies and analysis on the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, from 2006-2012 — is...