-Down to Earth While power consumption in agriculture is overestimated, a number of factors influence groundwater extraction. A new study done by Pune-based non-profit Prayas shows that India’s agriculture sector cannot be held responsible for financial stress on electricity distribution companies (discoms) and for declining groundwater. The study titled, Understanding the Electricity, Water & Agriculture Linkages, argues that not only is the subsidy given to agriculture in India overestimated, the relation between subsidy...

-The Indian Express The women organisations also demanded a gender-based segregated data for women and men farmers. Ahmedabad: An umbrella group of more than 40 NGOs on Tuesday submitted a 12-point representation to the state government demanding agricultural schemes to be more women farmer sensitive. The Working Group for Women and Land Ownership (WGWLO) has demanded a special and separate budgetary provision for women farmers, besides seeking agricultural schemes that are designed...

-The Hindu The CEO of the Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana on the challenges and scope of the scheme and responses from the States Indu Bhushan is the CEO of the world’s largest government-funded health insurance scheme, the Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PM-JAY), which was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on September 23. Until his appointment as CEO of PM-JAY, Mr. Bhushan served as director general for the East Asia...

-The Hindu With the ‘feminisation of agriculture’ picking up pace, the challenges women farmers face can no longer be ignored October 15 is observed, respectively, as International Day of Rural Women by the United Nations, and National Women’s Farmer’s Day (Rashtriya Mahila Kisan Diwas) in India. In 2016, the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare decided to take the lead in celebrating the event, duly recognising the multidimensional role of women at...

-Hindustan Times While states in the Hindi-speaking belt, such as Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Rajasthan, had the highest net outflow of migrants, Tamil Nadu and Kerala recorded the highest migrant inflow during the period. New Delhi: Tamil Nadu is known for anti-Hindi agitations both before and after India’s independence. Yet, according to Census data, Tamil Nadu recorded the highest increase in the number of people reporting Hindi as their mother tongue between...