-The Times of India UDAIPUR: A small initiative by the district administration to expand the types of works under MGNREGA to provide a wider range of options to beneficiaries has earned it large appreciation. Following the suit, green vegetable plantation and maintenance work at water bodies to facilitate better irrigation are likely to be adopted statewide as new activities under the scheme. At the recently concluded video conferencing program, the authorities of...

-Live Mint To alleviate poverty and extend true food security to its people India must bring efficiency to public expenditures In the Indian economy, where almost half of the average household's expenditures goes toward food and half the labour force is engaged in agriculture, one cannot simply wish away the centrality of agriculture just because its contribution to gross domestic product (GDP) hovers around a comparatively low 14%. India's agriculture is responsible...

-The Hindu Amidst worrisome indications that human-induced climate change is affecting the monsoon over India, research just published adds to a body of evidence showing that extremes in rainfall are increasing. "Our analyses indicate a shift in the recent period towards more intense wet spells and more frequent but less intense dry spells," say a team of researchers from Stanford University in the U.S. in a Nature Climate Change paper. The scientists examined...

-The Hindu     Aberrations in monsoon behaviour are not uncommon. What is new is the difficulty in forecasting caused by factors coming under the generic title, ‘Climate change.' Forecasts by the South Asian Climate Outlook Forum and the India Meteorological Department indicate that the south-west monsoon rainfall may be deficient. Also, there is a possibility of the evolution of an El Niño event during June to September. There is a 45 per cent...

-The Hindu   While migrant labourers see price rise as their primary concern, they still rate caste and religion as determining factors in their voting decision After the rural poor, farmers and the urban middle class, political parties are now seeking to make a vote bank out of migrant manufacturing labourers. The Bharatiya Janata Party's election manifesto promises the concept of "Industry Family" between workers and factory owners, but does not elaborate on...