-Outlook Deputy director, ILO Decent Work Team for South Asia and Country Office for India, Sher Singh Verick on India’s high but “jobless” growth mystery Sher Singh Verick, deputy director, ILO Decent Work Team for South Asia and Country Office for India, strives to unr­avel India’s high but “jobless” growth mystery. Excerpts from an e-mail interview: * On high growth, low jobs Economic growth through investment, consumption and exports generally res­ults in more jobs,...

-Livemint.com According to a background note prepared by the agriculture ministry, less than a fifth of targeted farmers have received soil health cards New Delhi: The government’s flagship scheme to correct the imbalance in fertiliser use and reduce costs of cultivation by providing all farmers with a soil health card is moving at a slow pace as states drag their feet. According to a background note prepared by the agriculture ministry and...

-The Economic Times NEW DELHI: The government's big plan to fight drought will be unveiled on Mahatma Gandhi's birthday on October 2, with three ministries on directions of the Prime Minister, joining hands to converge their schemes to 'drought-proof' vulnerable districts using technology. Narendra Modi, during meetings with the chief ministers of droughtaffected states earlier this year, had asked for a massive effort to be launched for water conservation and storage...

-The Indian Express PDS has improved in the state, but it’s still not up to the mark. Recent media reports suggest that the public distribution system (PDS) in West Bengal is now “doing enormously well” — as one headline put it. Some also claim that this has contributed to the victory of the Trinamool Congress in the latest assembly elections. Since we were involved in the survey cited in these reports, we...

-The Telegraph Ranchi: The Aadhaar-enabled public distribution system (PDS) launched in Ranchi on pilot basis threw up a tragic loophole today when around 50 leprosy patients turned up at their ward councillor's office, saying they had not received ration for the past three months as they lacked thumbs and fingers to verify their biometric identity. The 50-odd leprosy patients, including women, told ward 43 councillor Chanda Devi their very survival was at...