-India Today The Maharashtra government informed the Bombay High Court that 2.23 per cent of four lakh hectares of grazing land in the state are under encroachment. In Short: * About 2.23 per cent of the total grazing land in Maharashtra is under encroachment * 24,513 encroachments have been removed from July 12, 2011 to September 15, 2022 * Bombay HC court asked the state govt what steps will it take to remove the encroachments The...

-Ideas for India The share of bank credit extended to MSMEs increased dramatically during the pandemic. In this post, Harsh Vardhan discusses the the government guarantee of bank loans as a possible driver of this growth. He outlines the current policy of providing credit against collateral, and the constraints MSMEs face while borrowing– which leads to decreased investment and firm productivity. He argues that the learnings from the credit guarantee scheme...

-VillageSquare.in A new study by the Development Intelligence Unit (DIU) sheds light on rural India’s eating habits, debunking several myths, like richer people eat a more diverse diet than the poor. In a sure sign of development, India has shifted from worrying about food security to worrying about nutrition security – ensuring its people get a richer, more varied diet. Simply put, a more diverse diet means more nutrition, more nutrition means healthier...

-Press release by Oxfam India dated 15 September 2022 New Delhi: Oxfam India’s latest ‘India Discrimination Report 2022’ finds women in India despite their same educational qualification and work experience as men will be discriminated in the labour market due to societal and employers’ prejudices. The academically recognised statistical model applied in the India Discrimination Report is now able to quantify the discrimination women face in the labour market. The lower...

-Newslaundry.com The city is woefully ill-prepared, despite thousands of crores spent and warnings that went unheeded. Last week, Bengaluru was battered by rains that were unprecedented in scale and floods that were disastrous in impact. While the rains have abated, thousands living on the periphery of the Bellandur-Varthur lakes in east Bengaluru are still gripped by fear, worried that deliberately narrowed drains, encroachment of wetlands, and state apathy could trigger another round...