-Hindustan Times The design of large injections of public funds for India’s agriculture economy needs to be informed with rigorous evaluations on what is effective for higher farm productivity. A wage subsidy for farm-labour is one modification that needs an evaluation, to generate evidence to inform how the MGNREGA policy generates employment when there is need, but without stress to farm production Indian agriculture is witnessing a period of complex socio-economic distress,...

-The Hindu We need to revisit the credit policy with a focus on the outreach of banks and financial inclusion Since Independence, one of the primary objectives of India’s agricultural policy has been to improve farmers’ access to institutional credit and reduce their dependence on informal credit. As informal sources of credit are mostly usurious, the government has improved the flow of adequate credit through the nationalisation of commercial banks, and the...

-Tehelka.com Learning from the recent starvation deaths in Jharkhand, the nation’s leaders must pay heed to the necessity of ensuring food security for all Food and hunger have been important issues this past month and the news has not been welcome. First it was India’s dismal rank in the Global Hunger Index (GHI) 2017 released by the International Policy Research Institute rankings — 100th among 119 countries. GHI looks at undernourishment, child...

-The Times of India Malnutrition kills more Indians than any specific disease. That’s hardly surprising since a weakened body is more prone to infections and responds less to medicine or treatment than a well-fed, healthy one. Widespread malnutrition has been termed a national shame and a top priority. Yet, the debate in governments is mostly about whether or not to give packaged food and whether deficiencies of vitamins and minerals should be...

-Newsclick.in An average urban family suffers from chronic undernutrition, with its food consumption deficient in protein, energy, and important vitamins and minerals. A recently released report on the Nutritional Status of Urban Population by National Nutrition Monitoring Bureau (NNMB), throws light on the chronic undernutrition faced by India’s urban population, particularly the urban poor. The report compares the average consumption of different food groups by the urban population, to the scientifically calculated Required...