-The Indian Express The average days of employment provided per household, too, fell to 40.01 from 45.97 in 2013-14 and 46.20 in 2012-13. From Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s public barbs against its being a “living proof” of 60 years of Congress misrule, to a proposal now for extending the annual work entitlement to 150 days in drought-affected areas, the BJP-led government’s disposition towards the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Act (MGNREGA)...

-Institute of Economic Growth The paper explores the trends, composition, and incidence of out-of-pocket health expenditure (OOPHE) in India, which has been the predominant means of financing its health care needs. Unit-level data from the National Sample Survey on Household Consumer Expenditure for the years 1993–94, 2004–05, and 2011–12 are used. Results show that the burden of OOPHE has increased steadily over time, but more for the lower economic quintiles. Drugs...

-Business Standard Conceptualised to impart on- and off-field training to farmers, these bodies are failing because of poor financial and logistical support Muradnagar/ Hastinapur: For Ravinder Singh, the red and white building, just a few metres away from their 10-bigha farm is nothing more than a regular government office, where officials come and go without having any impact on their lives. Though they are aware the building has something to do with agriculture,...

Gujarat, which is hailed as a role model of growth and development, witnessed the lowest calorie intake per person per day in rural areas among the 17 major states of India during 2011-12. This has been revealed by the 68th round National Sample Survey report entitled Nutritional Intake in India 2011-12 (See chart 1). It can be inferred from the NSSO report that except Haryana, Punjab and Rajasthan, the daily...

-The Indian Express From NSSO data comes a key feature of vegetarianism: states that consume more milk go slow on egg, fish, meat. Being vegetarian means having a diet loaded with dal, sabzi and phal, right? Wrong — when it comes to India, at least. Average household monthly per capita expenditure (MPCE) on vegetables and fresh fruit is higher in fish- and beef-eating Kerala than in “vegetarian” Madhya Pradesh, whose Chief Minister...