-Down to Earth Debt-ridden farmers have to either rent or buy the machines, which pose several threats to their next crop Hamir Singh, 53, who holds a 14-acre farm in Kalajhar village in Sangrur district of Punjab, had decided to toe the line, but didn’t work for him. He followed the ban on crop residue burning and tried using new technology like the rotavator, which has rotating blades that chop the straw...

-Livemint.com The production of ‘mahua’ is finally entering the formal economy as new initiatives seek to upscale this indigenous drink, selling it across the country and even the globe It is a cloudy morning in Nangur village in Bastar district, Chattisgarh. It is a settlement of a little over 400 families, considered fairly large in these parts. We make a bumpy journey down a narrow, unpaved road intermittently shaded by sargi (sal)...

-Livemint.com With shrinking farm sizes and lack of accurate Land records, farmers find it difficult to generate enough income to provide for their households From farm subsidies to farm loan waivers, the Indian government spends crores on farmer welfare, but these efforts will be inadequate unless they can tackle an increasingly daunting barrier: lack of Land. The provisional figures from the latest agriculture census reveals how Land—the most critical input for agriculture—is...

-Hindustan Times While states in the Hindi-speaking belt, such as Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Rajasthan, had the highest net outflow of migrants, Tamil Nadu and Kerala recorded the highest migrant inflow during the period. New Delhi: Tamil Nadu is known for anti-Hindi agitations both before and after India’s independence. Yet, according to census data, Tamil Nadu recorded the highest increase in the number of people reporting Hindi as their mother tongue between...

-The New Indian Express The government had earlier said all 10.74 crore households categorised as deprived in the SECC 2011 would benefit from the scheme. NEW DELHI: Families that earn more than Rs 10,000 a month, or own a refrigerator or a two-wheeler, among other amenities, won’t be able to benefit from the Modi government’s ambitious health insurance scheme. The National Health Agency (NHA), responsible for implementing the Ayushman Bharat - Pradhan...