-The Hindu State governments were facing a shortage of Rs.9,682 crores as on November 26, 2021, says advocate Prashant Bhushan. The Supreme Court on Wednesday agreed to list an application mentioned urgently by advocate Prashant Bhushan highlighting a "grave crisis" concerning crores of rural poor who were not getting their wages under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) even as the COVID-19 pandemic had driven them to the brink...

-Livemint.com Central stocks haven’t been released while exports were upped to fill a Ukraine war-created vacuum One side effect of Russia attacking Ukraine has been a rise in global wheat prices. Wheat importers are struggling. I had written about this possibility in this space on 23 March (‘Like oil, soaring prices of wheat could have broad repercussions’). Towards the end, I had said that India was unlikely to be impacted primarily because...

-Livemint.com Fertilizer department said in the presentation that international prices of fertilizers and raw materials have been constantly rising since January 2021 NEW DELHI: The central government is set to raise the subsidy on fertilizers for the kharif crop season to cool prices to farmers, the department of fertilizers said in a presentation on Tuesday even as worries of protracted disruptions in key commodities continued to rattle global commodity and financial markets....

-IdeasForIndia.in The Mandal Commission and Sachar Committee reports, among others, have indicated the existence of caste inequalities within the four major caste groups. However, data on this subject remain limited. Using data from a novel 2014-2015 survey conducted in Uttar Pradesh, this article shows that within-group inequalities among upper castes are significantly less, relative to the within-group inequalities observed among both Hindu and Muslim OBCs and Dalits. Broadly, four social groups –...

-Centre for Science and Environment It is becoming clearer by the day that chemical fertilizers are not a sustainable solution to the problem of depletion of soil nutrients as a result of agriculture, particularly crop production. Biofertilizers and organic fertilizers not only provide nutrients to crops, they also help in restoring soil health and ecological balance. As we (re)discover the power and potential of biofertilizers and organic fertilizers, we need to...