-VillageSquare.in Women trained as poshan sakhis, or nutrition friends, advice and help rural women, particularly expectant and lactating mothers, to eat nutritious food and overcome anemia and underweight deliveries Koraput (Odisha): Swapnarani (21), an expectant mother, finishes her household work fast to attend the monthly maitri baithak at her village Bhutanagar in Badakeranga panchayat of Odisha’s Koraput district. Maitri baithak, or friendship meeting, provides space for women to discuss issues that concern...
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Agrarian crisis: Bias against agriculture needs to go for revival; higher investment, change in attitude towards sector a must -Prasanna Mohanty
-Firstpost.com The first reaction of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Central government after the party's debacle in the Hindi heartland states of Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan seems to be to waive farm loans, which is a telling comment on the state of the agrarian distress in India and the need to pay immediate attention to the crisis. This was expected, too, since 90 percent of the rural constituencies in Madhya Pradesh...
More »No Rafale, No Mandir. Only Bad Jokes: What Elections Look Like in India's Poorest District -Suhas Munshi
-Firstpost.com Faring last on every quantifiable social parameter in the country, MP’s Alirajpur sees a different style of campaigning. Alirajpur (MP): It is hard to figure as one moves through the lanes of Alirajpur, located in the far west corner of Madhya Pradesh, that it will vote with the rest of the state on Wednesday. There are no political billboards to be seen in the town, no vehicles move around with party flags...
More »Jean Dreze, development economist, interviewed by G Sampath (The Hindu)
-The Hindu The Indian education system would be a good place to start with reforms, says the development economist Jean Drèze is possibly the world’s most famous Belgian-Indian. He has lived in India since 1979, and is an Indian citizen. As a development economist and activist, he has helped draft some startlingly pro-people legislations, such as the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005, and the National Food Security Act, 2013....
More »The BJP government's crop insurance scheme costs more and works less -Nilesh Jain
-The Telegraph The scheme has consumed thrice as much money as earlier schemes without increasing the number of beneficiaries The new farm insurance scheme, introduced in 2016, the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana, has reportedly consumed thrice as much money as earlier schemes without either increasing the number of beneficiaries or giving farmers a fair claim. The PMFBY allows states to choose insurance companies through competitive bidding. Companies which propose to collect...
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