-The Hindustan Times   Patiala: A new study on farmers' suicide has revealed that young and unmarried farmers are more prone to suicides. Increasing frustration among young farmers because of agrarian crisis is compelling farmers to commit suicides. Titled "Agrarian distress in Punjab: a study of suicides by farmers and agricultural labourers", the study concludes that half of the farmers who committed suicides are below the age of 35 years and out of...

Samaj Pragati Sahayog (SPS) is one of India’s largest grass-roots initiatives for water and livelihood security, working with its partners on a million acres of land across 72 of India’s most Backward Districts, mainly in the central Indian Adivasi belt. SPS takes inspiration from the life and work of Baba Amte (our Pramukh Sahayogi) who rejected charity and successfully empowered even the most challenged. SPS is headquartered in a drought-prone,...

-PTI   Munde said proper implementation of the land acquisition Act and providing every household with sanitation and drinking water will be his priority   New Delhi: Narendra Modi government will restructure United Progressive Alliance's flagship programme Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) by linking employment with development in rural areas and "rigorously" implementing the new land acquisition law.   Senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Gopinath Munde, who took over as the minister...

-The Hindustan Times   What was inconceivable only few days ago in the corridors of the rural development ministry is now openly being pitched for - how to scale down UPA government's brainchild NREGA. Ministry officials are busy drawing up a blueprint for the new government to tweak NREGA in a bid to increase the efficiency of the 2006 rural job guarantee scheme. Some of the proposed changes include a focus on select blocks...

-The Telegraph   Officials are set to propose to the Narendra Modi government that the UPA's blockbuster rural job scheme be restricted to select districts as the decision in 2008 to extend it to all districts was not required. The officials of the rural development ministry are expected to tell the new minister that the funds allocated for the implementation of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Act (MGNREGA) were not adequate for national...