-Newsclick.in A combination of fund squeeze and political aversion has deprived lakhs of people from getting MGNREGS work, even though wages are very low. As the job crisis rages unabated across the country, demand for work under the rural jobs guarantee programme (MGNREGS – Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act) has risen dramatically in the past few years. In Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, the two big states where polling for Assembly...

-Hindustan Times This climate impact on agriculture is a cause for worry: the sector accounts for a large share in gross domestic product (16%) and employment (49%). Poor agricultural performance can lead to high inflation, rural distress, and political restiveness, as recent rural agitations and farmer suicides have shown. An annual review by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), a wing of the agriculture ministry, has said that crops, plantations...

-The Hindu Report concedes that farmers couldn’t buy seeds due to cash crunch. Millions of farmers in India were unable to buy seeds and fertilisers for their winter crops because of demonetisation, according to a report submitted by the Union Agriculture Ministry to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance. This official acknowledgement of the impact of demonetisation comes on a day when Prime Minister Narendra Modi, speaking at a rally in Jhabua, Madhya...

-The Hindu The draft report of the Murli Manohar Joshi-led Estimates Committee on “measuring growth, employment and income” asks the government on how it can address the critical issue of unemployment if it does not have “real time” and “holistic” data. A report by a parliamentary panel headed by BJP MP Murli Manohar Joshi, questioning the reliability of employment data collected by the government, has been stalled following protests by other BJP...

-The Hindu Contingency plan focusing on alternative crops drawn up VIJAYAWADA (Andhra Pradesh): After declaring 296 mandals as drought affected, the State government has suggested the farmers to cultivate short duration varieties like jowar, horsegram, cowpea, korra, red , green and black gram. Seed distribution The Agriculture department has prepared a contingency plan to handle the situation focusing on alternative crops, supply of sufficient quantities of seed and employment generation work. As part of...