-The Hindu For millions hit by agricultural distress, the escape to construction jobs is grinding to a halt With the Union Budget to be presented on February 1, it is hoped that the Finance Minister will make a significantly higher allocation for investment in infrastructure. It is vital for addressing rural distress. The Socio Economic and Caste Census (SECC) informed us that ‘landlessness and dependence on manual casual labour for a livelihood...

-Hindustan Times Access to formal credit can be a major game-changer in determining farm-incomes. It is to be expected that richer farmers would find it easier to avail of formal credit lines. What ails Indian farmers? The answer to this question is often mired in ideological quarrels. Some blame a lack of reforms in agricultural markets, while others accuse the state of not doing enough to support farming. Systemic issues are...

-Livemint.com Sluggish wage growth, lower crop planting, fluctuating prices paint a dismal picture for farmers and the Agriculture sector New data released by the government on rural wages, crop prices and sowing of winter crops reveals that rural distress is worsening. Planting of wheat, the main winter crop, between October and early January was 5% lower than a year ago due to lower sowing in Madhya Pradesh by close to a million hectares;...

-Newsclick.in   PM Modi - who promised to create 1 crore jobs - is supremely indifferent to this crushing crisis.   In Jind district of Haryana, 8 posts of peon and one post of process server were advertised. Authorities were inundated with 14,836 applications for the former and 3662 for the latter. That’s about 2055 applicants per vacancy. Although the peon’s position required just class 10 eligibility, graduates, post graduates and even PhD...

-Livemint.com There cannot be a solution to the problem of low wage growth in rural India unless opportunities for getting decent and productive jobs are available outside Agriculture One of the anomalies that stood out from the broad narrative of rural distress was the stubborn fact that rural wages were growing, not just in nominal but also in real, or inflation-adjusted terms. And if real rural wages were seeing higher growth, surely...