-Voice of America NEW DELHI: Unseasonable rains and hailstorms have damaged wide swathes of crops in India, one of the world’s biggest producers of commodities such as wheat. The government has promised to enhance compensation for millions of farmers, who are staring at huge losses. Rains lashed much of India through March -- normally the time when dry weather and rising temperatures ripen the wheat crop, making it ready to harvest. Besides wheat,...

-The Times of India INDORE: To protest against the increase in height of Omkareshwar dam, tribals farmers of Gogalgoan of Khandwa district of Madhya Pradesh are once again on 'Jal Satyagraha' in their filed which have been flooded due to increase in water level of dam. They are in knee deep water carrying placards that called for government to give them land or sufficient compensation. In the year 2012 farmers had organised...

Amidst brouhaha over the importance of MGNREGA, the recently released 68th Round National Sample Survey (NSS) report clears the air whether the MGNREGA had been beneficial to employment of persons from Scheduled Castes (SCs), Scheduled Tribes (STs) and Other Backward Classes (OBCs). Based on a survey of nearly 59,700 households in rural areas of India, the NSS 68th Round data shows that the proportion of persons who got job in...

-Hindustan Times Some state governments have made the unique identification, or Aadhaar, number mandatory for basic rights such as employment under a rural jobs scheme and electoral enrolment despite a Supreme Court order that the 12-digit biometric number is not necessary for government entitlements. Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh and Rajasthan are some of the states that have prescribed the Aadhaar number to get government entitlements from April 1, the start...

-Hindustan Times New Delhi: The BJP-led NDA government showed great speed in promulgating an ordinance to push through the land acquisition act, but an investigation by HT reveals that thousands of hectares of land acquired by the government is lying unused in several states. Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh top the list of states where land acquired even decades ago has not been industrialised. In the past 50 years, for instance, the...