-The Indian Express It’s not that Maharashtra has spent less on irrigation. The real problem is its high cost. Latur in Maharashtra has become a symbol of acute water scarcity. Several “jal doots” (water trains) had to ferry water to thirsty Latur. The Maharashtra government also imposed Section 144 to maintain law and order near water bodies/ distribution points. The high court intervened in the case of IPL matches and asked these...
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Why blame only the IPL for water woes? -Amitangshu Acharya
-Hindustan Times In this epic drought year in India, water is scarce, but not opinions. From newsprint to TV studios, perhaps more words have been either written or spoken than the total rainfall in Latur till now. Oddly enough, while one part of the nation had been reeling from water stress and agrarian crises for decades, the other part has willfully chosen to ignore it. So what led to this sudden...
More »Rising elderly population needs a broad-based support system
Although the focus of erstwhile UPA and the present NDA government has been to achieve higher economic growth by reaping the 'demographic dividend', a recent report from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) informs us that a substantial chunk of the population underwent ageing during the last 60 years. The report entitled Elderly in India: Profile and Programmes 2016 from CSO (that comes under the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation) shows...
More »Subsidies to farmers help agriculture? Perhaps not
-The Financial Express Rising dole hits both investment and productivity With around Rs 175,000-180,000 crore of annual expenditure on agriculture subsidies, the government probably feels it is doing a lot for the farmers and, come election time, will probably boast about it to get the rural vote. Yet, as an Icrier analysis at its ‘Supporting Indian farms the smart way’ workshop shows, not only is the rising subsidy not helping agriculture as...
More »Notes from the field: Rural transformation and MGNREGA -Swasti Pachauri
-Down to Earth Blog MGNREGA has been successful in Madhya Pradesh. Can the scheme also provide solutions for the current drought in the region? Sevanti Bai (45) lives alone in a village in Madhya Pradesh. Her husband died fifteen years ago, owing to health complications. With no land or children to depend on, she fends for herself by engaging in ‘rojgaar guarantee, as the locals call the scheme. MGNREGA, she says, has...
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