-Down to Earth MGNREGA workers across the country on June 29 staged peaceful demonstration, raised demands for higher benefits and wages The nationwide lockdown imposed to curb the spread of the Novel Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) left Mahatma Gandhi Employment Guarantee Act 2005 (MGNREGA) workers in the lurch. Thousands such workers, facing an economic crisis, have demanded an increase in the annual guarantee of work to 200 days per person. The workers from across...

-Down to Earth Instead of putting Punjab farmers at the mercy of big corporates and private players, there is a need to strengthen existing infrastructure The Union government announced three agriculture-related ordinances as part of its Novel Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) relief package — permitting agricultural trade outside the boundaries of market committees, easing regulation and control under the Essential Commodities Act and facilitating contract farming. Out of these, the Farmers’ Produce Trade and...

-The Indian Express That’s the actual liquidity pumped into rural areas by government post lockdown – through grain procurement, PM-Kisan and MGNREGA wages. There are many parallels one can draw between the Novel Coronavirus-induced lockdown (gharbandi) and demonetisation (notebandi), in terms of their impact on India’s farm economy. Both resulted in the same thing – demand destruction – albeit through different routes. Notebandi caused a haemorrhaging of liquidity from the predominantly cash-based farm...

-Down to Earth Its primary aim is to woo voters in Bihar where elections will take place later this year While the whole country is fighting against the Novel Coronavirus disease (COVID-19), the priority of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is to manage Rajya Sabha elections and campaign for the Bihar state assembly elections. The launch of ‘Garib Kalyan Rojgar Abhiyaan’ by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on June 20, 2020, is nothing but...

-Down to Earth Land use degradation creates ground for zoonotic disease like COVID-19 as the interaction and physical distance between animals and humans gets closer Land use change, which prepares the ground for zoonoses like the Novel Coronavirus disease (COVID-19), should be reversed urgently, the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) has said. Over 70 per cent of all natural, ice-free land in the world is affected by human use, according to...