-Livemint.com In the last three years, wages of agricultural labourers have increased only by 0.5% per year while those of non-agricultural workers have declined by 0.25% per year, the worst so far in 30 years The agrarian economy continues to be plagued by falling output prices, declining incomes and increased variation in agricultural production pointing to a situation of uncertainty and vulnerability among most rural residents. This has created an unprecedented demand...

-News18.com In an interview with News18’s Rupashree Nanda, Dreze, who was a member of Sonia Gandhi’s National Advisory Council and an architect of the National Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA), says that there have been no major initiatives in the social field in the last four years, with the partial exception of Swachh Bharat. Government data reveal that the Indian economy is growing at a robust rate but noted economist Jean Dreze believes...

-TheWeek.in Wilful defaults, loans which are deliberately not repaid by companies despite having the capacity to do so, have surged 152 per cent in the last four years of Modi government. A new report prepared by Pinkerton – a risk management consultancy along with PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry – says that both gross NPAs and wilful defaults have been going up post 2008 financial crisis. The value of wilful defaults...

-Livemint.com The number of farmers covered under prime minister’s crop insurance scheme fell to 47.9 million in 2017-18, from a high of 57.5 million the year before, a sharp decline of 17% in just a year New Delhi: Despite the centre pumping more funds into its flagship crop insurance scheme, coverage among farmers is on the decline, according to figures released on Tuesday, indicating a decline in interest among farmers. The number of...

-The Indian Express Large numbers of the tribals who have gathered in the Mumbai are not seeking a loan waiver, but the implementation of the vision envisaged in Forest Rights Act, a legislation enacted by Parliament in 2006. The nearly 40,000 sunburnt and dusty men and women waiting patiently in an open ground in Mumbai on Sunday night tell the story of the continuing gloom in Maharashtra’s farmlands more succinctly than the...