-Hindustan Times Dungarpur: India’s rural employment guarantee scheme is falling short in helping residents tide over the economic distress caused by the COVID-19 outbreak and the subsequent lockdown restrictions, data from Rajasthan suggest. Nearly 43% households who took up work under the scheme in Dungarpur, a largely tribal district in southern Rajasthan, had completed more than 50 of their 100 days of work in the first four months of the current financial...

-The Indian Express According to the survey, about 28 per cent of a total of 35,000 students, teachers, principals and parents cited intermittent and lack of power as a major hindrance. ABOUT 27 per cent of students don’t have smartphones and laptops to access online classes amid the COVID school shutdown. But among those who do, most find online learning either “joyful” or “satisfactory”, although mathematics and science are the toughest to...

-Livemint.com * As consumers bear the brunt of high food costs, growers see no benefit. How long will this strange dynamic last? * Many lower income consumers are also not enrolled under the federal food security scheme. An estimate suggests that over 100 million eligible Indians are excluded Ramesh Pangal calls it a season of miseries: Farmers running around with vegetables to find a buyer; leaving tomatoes to rot in the field; dumping...

-Business Standard Unemployment rate in the country will rise to a staggering 32.5 per cent, but will be higher in Sri Lanka at 37.8 per cent As many as 6.1 million young people (15-24 years) may lose jobs in India in 2020 if the containment of the virus takes six months (roughly till September), says a report by Asian Development Bank (ADB) and International Labour Organisation (ILO). India will be followed by Pakisan,...

-Down to Earth Highest rice acreage in six years, more farmers in farms, a bounty monsoon and an expected bumper harvest don't enthuse farmers as their earning dips   It is a piece of news that everybody would love to cheer about, except those who made this possible. The current kharif season is exceptional. In comparison to last year, over eight million more hectares of farms are under cultivation this season. There are more...