-The Telegraph India spends only 0.04 per cent of its GDP on social security pension; several states add to the pension from their own funds Sulochana Behera eagerly waits for her old-age pension of Rs 500 every month at her home in Garh Nipania village in Puri district, Odisha. Within hours of receiving the sum, the widowed Sulochana spends it all on medicine and food that barely last a week. She then starts...

-The Telegraph However, experts say this is largely an illusion caused by a distressed population INCreasingly taking up low-paid informal jobs A government survey has portrayed an improved unemployment situation between July 2019 and June 2020 on certain parameters, but experts say this is largely an illusion caused by a distressed population INCreasingly taking up low-paid informal jobs. Besides, while one standard of measurement in the survey appears to show an improvement, another...

-The Tribune Patiala: Members of the Sarpanch (Panchayat) Union of Punjab took out a protest march against pending MGNREGA payments and development works in rural areas, in Patiala on Monday. Amid rain, over 1,000 sarpanches, panches and their supporters gathered atthe PUDA ground and marched towards the CM’s residence in the noon. The protesters said their demands weren’t heard by the ministers. Ravinder Singh Rinku (Gurney), state vice-president of the union, said,...

-The New Indian Express Punjab fares well in Union agriculture ministry scheme that focuses on enhancing INCome of marginal farmers and diversifying land use by paying attention to agro-forestry. PUNJAB:  For five years, 13,039 farmers across Punjab have been into agroforestry, which has emerged as one of the viable alternatives for diversification from the paddy-wheat cycle. In half a decade, 1.50 crore saplings have been planted, for which farmers have been given...

-TheWire.in It has been proven time and again that large 'development' projects, involving the blasting of fragile hills and constraining the flow of rivers, cause huge loss of lives and livelihoods in the Himalayan region. Two big landslides in the Kinnaur district of Himachal Pradesh which made national headlines have re-emphasised the need for ecologically protective development in geologically fragile and vulnerable hills. On August 11, a massive landslide on National Highway 5,...