-The Economic Times When the country was growing at more than 8 per cent for about a decade, services and manufacturing were the darlings of policy-makers, investors and talking heads. Agriculture, a segment that employs nearly half the hundred crore population of the country, was hardly mentioned even in passing. This year, thanks to a poor monsoon, suddenly the farmers are the centre of India's growth story, or the lack of...

-Deccan Herald A study has found India to be the lowest on nutrition parameters, sharing the last rank with Democratic Republic of Congo and Yemen. India performed lowest at the level of policy as well as implementation. Nutrition barometer, the study carried out by Save the Children, compared commitments and outcomes of 36 countries which together account for 90 per cent of the world’s stunted children. Components for the commitment included a snapshot...

-Outlook The Goa government today announced a subsidy on domestic LPG cylinders for people blow an annual average income of Rs 3 lakh. The state civil supplies minister Dayanand Mandrekar told PTI that families below an annual average income of Rs 3 lakh will get additional six LPG cylinders per year on subsidised rates. He said that 12 LPG cylinders, including six subsidised by the union government would be made available for these...

Direct cash transfers or food coupons should be used by the government to provide services to the poor, says Farzana Afridi, Assistant Professor, Economics and Planning Unit, Indian Statistical Institute, New Delhi. Afridi, who obtained her PhD in economics from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and an MA in economics from the Delhi School of Economics, says that although the Mid Day Meal Programme is having a substantial effect, the...

-The Economic Times The Centre has asked states to introduce millets in mid-day meal schemes in schools to boost demand for the nutritious grain, but experts say the move would also ease pressure on food stocks as rice output is expected to decline this year and the food security legislation would require an additional 63 million tonnes of grain. The government expects a 9% fall in this year's output of rice,...