-The Telegraph Delay in clearing dues affecting Muzaffarnagar farmers as cultivation is their only source of income Lucknow: Sugarcane farmers in Muzaffarnagar have alleged that the eight sugar mills in the district have been delaying payments totalling Rs 1,300 crore, a perennial problem of late clearance of dues that is this time hurting the cultivators even more because of the economic crisis perpetrated by the pandemic. Preparing to protest while alleging that the...

-Newsclick.in Weavers in Prime Minister Modi’s constituency, reeling under the triple blow of demonetisation, GST and lockdown, are on a week-long token protest against hiked electricity bills. Lucknow: To keep his home fires burning, Mohammad Obaid had to sell three handlooms and a wrapping machine that he had bought with his hard-earned money following demonetisation (November 2016) and the imposition of goods and services tax (GST). Now, the coronavirus pandemic-induced over three...

-TheWire.in Warnings sound by the UN and its organs point to a food crisis which is worse than any seen in the last 50 years. On June 9, the United Nations warned that the world today faces a food crisis which is worse than any seen in the last 50 years. Secretary general Antonio Guterres said that nearly 50 million people risk falling into extreme poverty due to the pandemic. More specifically...

-Hindustan Times Business leaders expect a normal monsoon, record sowing of summer crops, improved winter harvest and a raft of government measures to help farmers and boost rural incomes to boost demand for goods ranging from two-wheelers to tractors. Businesses are banking on a bumper harvest and high rural incomes to drive demand for goods after the coronavirus pandemic stunted growth in the country’s cities, where most of the factories and offices...

-Civil Society News As people pour into villages from cities in a desperate effort to get back home, the only work they can hope to get is under MGNREGA (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act). The rural employment scheme was designed to help people in distressful situations like a flood or drought so that they had something to fall back on when there was nothing else. Will it be able to...