-Down to Earth India requires policy changes to make millets an effective tool against malnutrition Nutrient-rich millets, which have been a crucial part of human diet since ancient times, have lost their importance due to globally commercialised agronomic practices to produce more foodgrains. Though awareness has been growing among the public in the recent years about the health benefits of a millet-based diet—high fibre, low carbohydrate, protein-rich and gluten-free—gaps persist on several...

-Newsclick.in Farmers all over the potato belt are dumping their produces out on the roads, as the Yogi government continues to ignore their plight. Shamsher Singh, a farmer from Agra, Uttar Pradesh, is a worried man. He produced 100 sacks of potatoes this season but could sell only fifty of them that too at the rate below his investment in the produce, in a desperate hope to get some money back in...

-Hindustan Times An analysis of parliamentarians’ attendance suggests a correlation between their regularity and the troika of moveable wealth, education, and criminality. Showing up to work is the least we can expect from our Members of Parliament (MPs). Yet, very few MPs do this with regularity — only 20% of standard (non-minister) MPs that served a full term in Lok Sabha between 2009 and 2014 attended Parliament at least 90% of the...

-Livemint.com Youth in rural India are often forced to work in their family farms, but they prefer joining the army or becoming engineers, teachers or nurses, the survey shows New Delhi: Youth in rural India are often forced to work in their family farms, but they prefer joining the army or becoming engineers, teachers or nurses, found a survey released last week. A large number of rural youth in the 14-18 year age...

-Livemint.com Farmers need structural reforms, crop diversification and greater public investment rather than subsidies and price support Indian agriculture has been relatively untouched by the structural reforms that lifted incomes in other parts of the economy. Low farm productivity meant that governments tried to improve the lot of farmers through price policy. The problem is that engineering a shift in the terms of trade through higher support prices usually leads to generalized...