-Newsclick.in NSSO, Livestock Census, NCRB, even Census data, are slowly getting strangled by delays but more so by wilful omissions of parts. In the past five and a half years, several key data releases have been excised, mangled, delayed or even suppressed. Since these are all generated, collated and processed by dedicated departments of the central government, it is not a leap of imagination that there is some deliberate intent behind this. Stray...

-Livemint.com * A field report from the agriculturally prosperous heartland reveals a lacklustre festival of lights * Delay in farm loan waivers has worsened farmers’ credit score. So, financiers are unwilling to advance new loans to them for buying farm equipment SRI GANGANAGAR: "How are you going to celebrate Diwali?" My question gets Roopa Ram, an elderly farmer, so amused that he thinks it’s important to do some explaining to a reporter from...

-Business Standard The data released yesterday shows that while overall the number of India's PoUltry birds have risen from 729.2 million to 851.8 million as the 2019 census, an increase of almost 17 per cent In a significant development for India’s rural landscape, the latest provisional data of 20th livestock census shows a sharp increase in backyard PoUltry birds between 2012 and 2019, as compared to rise in birds from commercial PoUltry...

-The Hindu Business Line Cow population up 18 per cent in seven years but number of oxen plunges 30 per cent The population of cows in the country has risen by 18 per cent in the last seven years, while that of oxen dipped by 30 per cent, according to the latest census of livestock. The total number for livestock was pegged at around 536 million. The provisional data of the 20th Livestock...

-The Hindu Business Line The death of two children killed for relieving themselves in public just days before India was declared ‘open defecation free’ by the Prime Minister highlights the chasm between targets and solutions India was declared ‘open defecation free’ on October 2, Mahatma Gandhi’s 150-year birth anniversary. A target-oriented sanitation drive, the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan (SBA) was a signature programme of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s first term in office. Rapid...