-The Telegraph Bhagalpur: The state government has urged Bihar Agriculture University (BAU), Sabour, and Rajendra Agriculture University (RAU), Pusa, to spread community radio network in their respective areas. At a time when Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself connects with India over radio now and then, the state government's effort goes to show how radio remains indispensable for the common man. The state government's effort would help update farmers with agricultural practices by adopting...

-The Hindu Business Line Through the ‘Sukrutham' scheme, the Kerala Government aims to take advanced cancer treatment to the poorest Kerala: "We have two options, medically and emotionally: give up or fight like hell," Lance Armstrong, champion cycle racer, who recovered from advanced testicular cancer once said about his battle against cancer. The American, fortunately, had the money to pay for the extremely expensive treatment. But, for the majority of 1.75 lakh...

-The Telegraph The National Democratic Alliance government is planning to scrap the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act. The chief minister of Rajasthan, Vasundhara Raje, had already asked for the employment programme of the MGNREGA under which the state was obliged to provide employment on demand (failing which an unemployment allowance of a specified amount had to be paid), to be downgraded to a mere "food-for-work" programme, where the state...

-The Indian Express We want Prime Minister Narendra Modi to succeed in his national campaign to tackle the vast problems of the poor in Bharat. But his one-time contractor turned Union minister for rural development is succeeding in making his own prime minister look contradictory and indecisive to the nation and the world. The prime minister talks about constructing toilets and improving sanitation, opening bank accounts for every poor, excluded family,...

-The Indian Express Moves to dilute labour-material ratio in MGNREGA and focus exclusively on select backward blocks will adversely impact rural poor. Before the general elections, free-market fundamentalists had lobbied fiercely to reshape so-called wasteful social-sector expenditures. Primary among their targets was the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), which, according to them, should become an unconditional cash transfer scheme. Post-elections, the late Gopinath Munde's espousal of the MGNREGA went...