-The Indian Express Rural families in low income states such as Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal depend far less on ration shops for wheat and rice than the national average. In Bihar, less than 12 per cent of the rural population uses ration shops to buy rice, and in West Bengal, less than 6 per cent of rice consumed by rural families is bought from these shops, data from five-yearly...

-The Hindu Chennai: Aimed at benefiting over 1.3 crore agriculturists, land development activities for farming will be taken up shortly on lands belonging to the Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes besides small and marginal farmers. As a prelude to this step, gram sabhas in 12,524 village panchayats met on Republic Day and approved the lists of the farmers identified by Rural Development and Agriculture Departments of the State governments. Assessment of requirements of the...

-Live Mint The food security Bill could be taken up by Parliament in the first part of the budget session, which is set to start next month The politically sensitive food security Bill could be taken up by Parliament in the first part of the budget session, set to start next month, after the food ministry took a remarkably brief one week to consider and accept almost all the recommendations on the...

-The Hindu Women’s groups demand a separate Centrally-sponsored scheme with enough funds to ensure proper implementation of the Domestic Violence Act, 2005 Women’s groups have questioned the Centre’s commitment to address the issue of domestic violence and ensuring women’s security in the wake of its failure to allocate sufficient funds for the implementation of the Protection of Women against Domestic Violence Act, 2005. Women’s groups and activists are now demanding a separate...

-The Hindu Hailed as path-breaking, the scheme completes seven years on February 2. Six districts were chosen as part of the first phase in 2006. As in other parts of the country, the scheme has thrown up several issues such as livelihood security and gender empowerment. Starting today, we will be carrying a series of field reports. VILLUPURAM: Divergence of views prevails over the implementation of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment...