-Hindustan Times These women have come together to force the administration to give them designated work under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act. The scorching heat and glaring sun don’t seem to deter the spirit of villagers clearing weed and silt from a dry lake in Bevanahalli, Mandya district. Sowbhagya, one of the labourers, from the 75-member group is worried about completing the task assigned on time. “The authorities gave us...

-Livemint.com Last year’s abundant rains in drought-prone Marathwada region, of which Latur is a part, have helped farmers produce record amount of pulses Mumbai: Latur is back on its feet and its pulse mills are running again, a year after an acute drought. The dry bed of the Manjra river, the water train from Sangli and the once ubiquitous water tankers have become things of the past. Last year’s abundant rains in Marathwada—a...

-HuffingtonPost.in "Yet more than half-way through his (Modi’s) tenure, there are almost no jobs available." The India Exclusion Report 2016, released by the New Delhi-based Centre for Equity Studies (CES) on Friday, says that fewer jobs were created under the Modi government in 2015 compared to the previous government LED by the Congress Party. Citing Labour Ministry Data, the report says that employment creation in 2015 plummeted to 135,000 jobs compared to 930,000...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: Supreme Court advocate Prashant Bhushan today urged environment minister Anil Dave to reject a regulatory panel's recommendation to release genetically modified mustard for commercial cultivation, questioning the regulatory process and claims about the plant's superiority. In a letter to Dave, Bhushan cited a Supreme Court hearing on GM crops and described India's regulatory mechanisms for such crops as "farcical". He asked Dave to "withhold" his approval to the...

-Hindustan Times A new report examining 25 years of India’s economic liberalisation says exclusion of a large section of Dalits and Muslims have not gained adequately from the growth unlike more influential empowered sections of the society As India’s economy grew rapidly, the inequality between the richest and the poorest rose, the number of landless farmers increased and employment generation was lowest in 2015, says a new report examining 25 years...