-The Business Standard Says increase in the subsidised foodgrain allocation will put pressure on the food subsidy bill Union Food Minister Ram Vilas Paswan on Tuesday said the government has no plans to raise subsidised foodgrain allocations under the National Food Security Act (NFSA) from 5 kg to 7 kg a person a month. Under the Act, each eligible person gets 5 kg of rice at Rs 5 a kg or wheat at...

It is said that the Central Water Commission (CWC) has failed miserably in September 2014 to furnish information on river flow and raise alarm to people of Jammu and Kashmir living in the downstream areas in the midst of heavy rainfall. The CWC is responsible for making forecasts of floods in all flood-prone areas and provides advisory to the states for tackling floods. The NGO South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers...

-The Times of India HYDERABAD: In what could be seen a possible reflection of an agrarian crisis, 2014 farmers -- 1211 in Telangana and 803 farmers in Andhra -- committed suicide in the undivided state in 2013. The data provides a comprehensive analysis and break-up based on age, gender and districts on all farmers' suicides recorded last year. Among districts, Mahbubnagar topped the list in Telangana with 287 deaths and in Andhra, this...

-India Today Devgadh Baria, Gujarat: Savita Naik, Navliben, Chandaben and Kamtiben eke out a meagre living in Panchiyasaal village, just about 30 km from the block headquarters of Devgadh Baria in Gujarat's tribal-dominated Dahod district. They have 1 to 1.5 bighas of land and so have been categorised as marginal land holders. It was a huge fight for them to earn even this land - they fought right from the level of...

-The Indian Express The MGNREGS stands out as one of the Indian government's most ambitious social schemes, with far-reaching consequences throughout the economy. The only known recipe for poverty eradication is a combination of high growth and high development spending. Neither is sufficient. A recent study (Kapoor and Ahluwalia, 2012) has shown that post-liberalisation, one champion of poverty reduction in India is Andhra Pradesh. This reduction in poverty is widespread, as...