-Down to Earth UPA gives sops under MGNREGS to attract rural voters ahead of elections WITH most of its recent schemes struggling, a desperate UPA government is pinning its hopes on Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) to win votes in 2014 elections. The government is overhauling the employment scheme that helped it return to power in 2009 for a reason. It touches the lives of over 55 per cent...

-The Business Standard This is happening especially with small and marginal farms Bhopal: In contrast to the tall claims of achieving double digit growth in agriculture sector National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) today said agriculture in Madhya Pradesh is perceived to be increasingly unviable owing to yield and price risks as well as lack of risk mitigation mechanism. This is happening especially with small and marginal farms. Interestingly, government...

-PTI NEW DELHI: Bowing to party pressure, the government on Thursday raised the quota of subsidized LPG to 12 cylinders per household in a year from nine at present and also put on hold paying users the subsidy into bank accounts using Aadhaar platform. Announcing the decision taken by the Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs, oil minister M Veerappa Moily said raising the LPG quota will cost Rs 5,000 crore in additional...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: A global analysis of how nations tackle environmental challenges has ranked India 155 among 178 nations and labelled the country's air quality among the worst in the world, tying it with China in exposing its population to hazardous air pollution. The Environmental Performance Index 2014, generated by researchers at Yale University in the US, has bracketed India among "bottom performers" on several indicators such as environmental health...

-Grain.org "We take care of the cow and the cow takes care of us," says Marayal, a farmer in Thalavady, Tamil Nadu. Her two cows produce 6 to 10 litres of milk a day, which she sells for 30-40 cents per litre. Across India, there are millions of backyard dairy farmers like Marayal. Each owning just one or two cows, these farmers supply millions more families and hundreds of thousands of informal...