Reforms in the supply-chain system can help India tackle the demand-supply mismatch in essential food items Food inflation may have dropped to single digit but since that fall is set against last year’s elevated double-digit base, it continues to hurt the poor — 65 per cent of their disposable income goes towards food. The government often defends its failure to tame inflation by arguing that it has no magic wand to...

-Press Information Bureau   A Study conducted by the Central government reveals that works given under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, MGNREGS have led to increase in crop yields, besides substantial enhancement of market wage rates of agricultural and non-agricultural labourers. The positive impact of the scheme was also noticed in the considerable increase in the forest area and the decline in incidents of out-migration. The information was given by...

IF YOU walked down the streets of Jantar Mantar in New Delhi between 3-5 August, you would see what TV cameras aren’t putting out on primetime news. Thousands of farmers from Jhabua in Madhya Pradesh to Rohtak in Haryana. On protest. Against the systematic grabbing of their land by various state governments across the political spectrum. On one side of the road, on large green carpets, are about 3,000 farmers,...

The ministry of rural development has written to all the states warning them not to go slow or suspend works under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act at any point of time in the year. The communication reminding the provisions of the right to work Act comes in the wake of reports that some states are going slow in execution of works under the UPA's flagship social sector programme,...

Despite a recovery, acreage of groundnut, sunflower and castorseed recorded a sharp decline this year due to low rainfall in major producing areas during the peak sowing season. The three major kharif oilseeds are sown for a month starting June 15 and Harvested between October and December. Data collated by the ministry of agriculture showed the area under groundnut declined 28.37 per cent as on July 21. The sowing area under...