-The Tribune The UPA's flagship programme MGNREGS changed the employment scene for the rural poor. While 100-day job guarantee was a novel step, loopholes and poor implementation rendered it a liability. The Modi govt hopes to gradually reinvent the scheme, if not entirely scrap it. Midway through the Congress-led UPA's second tenure - believed to be largely the courtesy of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) -...

-Down to Earth Panel headed by economists S Mahendra Dev also recommends linking wages to Consumer Price Index-Rural as cushion against inflation A committee of experts set up by the Union rural development ministry has recommended that the wages paid to unskilled agricultural labourers under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) should be the minimum wage fixed by the respective state or the current wage as per the consumer...

-The Asian Age New Delhi: With traces of toxic metals found in fruits and vegetables grown along the banks of the Yamuna river, the city administration is likely to ban farming with contaminated water from the river. The national capital receives 95 per cent of its vegetables and fruits from other states. Of the remaining five per cent, half of these are grown using the Yamuna's polluted water. As the move...

-The Hindu Scientists are trying to develop heat stress resilient, high-yielding and nutritionally enriched maize varieties to face the challenges of global warming Raichur (Karnataka): The Global Maize Programme, an initiative of the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre, is intensively pursuing the development of heat-stress resilient, high-yielding and nutritionally enriched maize varieties in order to face the challenges of global warming and meet the global demand for maize, the agency's director...

-Down to Earth Targeted efforts to make food systems more efficient can also reduce the environmental footprint of agriculture Basic calorie need of 3 billion extra people can be met if food systems are made more efficient through targeted efforts, suggests a new report. What's more, the targeted efforts will also help reduce the environmental footprint of agriculture. The report by researchers from the University of Minnesota, and published in the peer reviewed...