-Newsclick.in Agricultural output is stagnating, farmers’ debt and suicides are rising, 35% cultivators have abandoned farming – gujarat’s development model has betrayed farmers Here are some facts about the state of agriculture in Gujarat, often described by BJP as the crucible for ‘model’ governance and development: Between 2001 and 2011, the number of cultivators in Gujarat fell by 355,181, the bulk of which was marginal cultivators (those who cultivate only up to...
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NREGA wage payments are being withheld by the Centre, alleges civil society organisations
-Press Note from NREGA Sangharsh Morcha Since the start of the FY 18, we have pointed out the willful misrepresentation of delays in wage payments, incomplete calculation of the full extent of compensation due to workers and the under provisioning of budgets for the program. In August, we released a report by independent researchers, that used the Ministry of Rural Development’s own data to show how the Central Government is deliberately...
More »Grass or tree?: A rule reclassifying bamboo claims to benefit tribals - but industry will gain more -Nitin Sethi
-Scroll.in At the heart of the problem is a discrepancy between two laws on rights for Adivasis to the bamboo growing on their traditional forestlands. Across the world, taxonomists have classified bamboo as a grass. But under Indian law, it was treated as a tree. This definition has long given state forest departments monopolistic control over the valuable natural resource. On November 23, the central government loosened this grip by amending the...
More »A way to manage falling prices of pulses -C Rangarajan & Shashanka Bhide
-The Hindu Business Line Procurement of the excess output vis-a-vis a normal year, rather than open-ended purchase, is a viable option A bountiful harvest that implies an increase in output may not always increase the nominal income of the farming sector, which is subject to the behaviour of input and more particularly output prices, which may sometimes move sharply. There can, therefore, be years in which there is a sudden and sharp...
More »India unlikely to cut malaria by half in 2020: WHO -Jacob Koshy
-The Hindu India accounted for 6% of global malaria cases and 7% of deaths caused by it in 2016, according to a report released on Wednesdayby the World Health Organisation (WHO). This is in the same ballpark as last year, though the WHO figures also suggest that India is unlikely to reduce its case burden beyond 40% by 2020. In contrast, Maldives, Sri Lanka and Kyrgyzstan achieved malaria-free status in 2015...
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