-The New Indian Express DHENKANAL: The farmers of the district feel discouraged to grow rabi crops after they bore the brunt of crop damage due to erratic and scanty rainfall during kharif season. Sources said farmers of almost all the blocks are not showing  interest to take up cultivation in the rabi season. Considering the plight of the farmers, the district agriculture department has decided to grow paddy in 534 hectares (ha) against...

-Economic and Political Weekly The platform known as the JAM Trinity (an acronym for Jan Dhan Yojana, Aadhaar and mobile numbers) may enable a shift from the current Public Distribution System, based on price subsidies, to the direct transfer of benefits. However, it is incorrect to argue that JAM technologies will necessarily lead to the demise of the PDS. State-level experiences of computerisation, recounted here, reveal that the same technologies can...

-The Hindu Business Line Crop insurance will make farming a safer vocation The plight of Punjab’s cotton farmers after a swarm of ‘whiteflies’ ravaged their crop is truly disquieting. In a knee-jerk response, Punjab has promised ₹640 crore for over two-third of the crop being destroyed, but on what basis, it is hard to tell. This highlights the absence of crop insurance in Punjab, as pointed out by a recent Crisil study....

-National Association of Street Vendors of India (NASVI) Press Release New Delhi, 18 September 2015: With work and social protection emerging as a major focus area, an awareness-cum-multi stake holder dialogue programme for workers of unorganized sectors was jointly conducted by NIDAN and National Union of Informal workers (NUIW) here on Friday. Speaking at the inaugural session of the one-day colloquium on National Workshop of Informal Workers; Laws, Policies & Organizing for...

-PTI Patna: Bihar is the country's most flood-prone state with 73 per cent of its 94,163-sq.km area getting flooded annually, the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) said in Patna today. 76 per cent people of North Bihar are at risk of getting caught in floods, said Giriraj Amarnath, senior researcher and project lead of IWMI, who added that Index-based Flood Insurance (IBFI) could prove to be a boon for the situation. Speaking at...