-Down to Earth It is a novel idea; but in a country where the ruling class openly favours corporates, it could prove disastrous for farmers India’s agriculture sector makes a significant contribution to its Gross Domestic Product and provides livelihood for many millions of people. Agriculture is not only a means of trade and a source of livelihood, but is fundamentally associated with our culture. Today though, farmers are distancing themselves from farming...

-The Hindu With no urban equivalent to the NREGA as yet, there must be a focus on supporting new forms of employment With the Indian economy gradually finding its feet after a historic contraction of negative 23.9% in the April-June quarter, economic commentators have busied themselves with debating the need for fiscal expansion and the viability of a “V-shaped recovery”. These debates, however, have shifted focus away from the employment question, considered...

-The Hindu The gender gap in the agriculture sector will only widen more with the current farm laws Eminent agriculture scientist M.S. Swaminathan once said, “Some historians believe that it was women who first domesticated crop plants and thereby initiated the art and science of farming. While men went out hunting in search of food, women started gathering seeds from the native flora and began cultivating those of interest from the point...

-The Hindu Jaipur: The Congress government in Rajasthan has initiated action to bring the concurrent social audits of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act’s (MGNREGA) works at village panchayats in line with the annual village plans. A target has been set to complete the exercise by January 26. Chief Secretary Niranjan Arya said here on Wednesday that socially excluded groups would be included in the planning process, with the emphasis...

-TheWire.in The economists, who have engaged with issues of agricultural policy, said that the Centre's reforms were based on "wrong assumptions" about why farmers were unable to get remunerative prices. New Delhi: A group of senior economists have released an open letter to the Union agriculture minister Narendra Singh Tomar calling for the repeal of the three contentious farm bills “which are not in the best interests of the small and marginal...