-The Hindu Many in Jharkhand have been denied food under the public distribution system as their ration cards have been cancelled in the mad rush for putting in place a digital system. While activists claim that some have died from starvation, the government denies this. Shiv Sahay Singh reports on the faulty PDS A few weeks before Kaleshwar Soren, 45, died, he sold the last of his belongings, a Palash tree, for...

-Down to Earth The employment scheme generated 20.23 average working days in the state against the mandated 100 days, according to a Punjabi University report A high incidence of illiteracy, low levels of education, a major lack of awareness and dependence on Panchayat members and sarpanches have led the much-publicised Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) to fail in Punjab. The scheme generated only 20.23 average days' employment a year...

-The Hindu Business Line Hyderabad: The number of farmer suicides in Telangana seems to have come down over the past few months. But the agriculture sector continues to suffer from severe distress, and a staggering 12,820 farmers who had taken the Rythu Bima insurance cover have died due to various reasons over the past year. “About Rs.640 crore of the aggregate sum assured has been paid to the kin of 12,820 farmers...

-Newsclick.in “Our population today is around 136 crore. Where will you get food grains for them through zero budget farming? This is sheer madness.” There is an inherent seductive charm to the term zero budget natural farming, for it makes the arduous occupation of agriculture appear beguilingly simple, an economic proposition without any risk or even requirement of capital. Coined by the Vidarbha-based farmer, Subhash Palekar, who was bestowed with the Padma...

-The Hindu NGO says strike in June violated SC direction A contempt petition has been filed in the Supreme Court against the Indian Medical Association for calling — and the Centre for not preventing — a nationwide strike by doctors on June 17, 2019. The strike was held to demonstrate solidarity with the junior doctors of West Bengal in their protest against assault on two junior doctors at the NRS Hospital in Kolkata....