-The Times of India NEW DELHI: India may have reduced extreme poverty far more effectively than most of us are aware of. The last official data is eight years old. In 2011, 268 million people were surviving on less than $1.90 a day, the World Bank measure for extreme poverty. The next round of data on household consumption is likely to come out in June, and it may well show a...

-The Hindu The solution lies in better schemes that ensure universal coverage for small, marginal and medium-sized farmers To do or not to do? According to reports, the Central government is discussing a scheme to waive outstanding farm loans in the aftermath of widespread farmers’ protests between March and December 2018 . Till now, at least 11 States have announced schemes to waive outstanding farm loans: Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil...

-BusinessToday.in There is, however, no silver bullet solution to agrarian distress. It needs long-term planning and multi-pronged strategy. Agrarian distress has come to the centre stage of national discourse primarily because of last year's multiple farmers' marches and the electoral outcomes in the three Hindi heartland states of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. This augurs well for a sector which provides 49% of total employment and supports nearly 70% of population but...

-The Hindu Business Line It is vital to cover the important and vulnerable section of tenant farmers with credit and insurance Tenant farmers rarely get Bank credit. They don’t get any subsidies. Money lenders thrive on them because their loans cannot be waived. They also account for 80 per cent of farmers’ suicides in the country. With farmers taking to the streets to highlight their issues these problems should be addressed. State level...

-Mongabay.com Illegal rat-hole mining in Meghalaya persists despite ruinous effects on the environment The efforts to reach the 15 miners trapped in an illegal coal mine in the East Jaintia hills of Meghalaya since December 13 continue, but they began belatedly and have faced many problems. Doomed from the beginning First, the Meghalaya government has no idea what happens inside these rat-hole mines, which are barely 2 ft wide, since mining is a private...