-The Hindu Business Line The risk of water availability is a painful reality in south Asian agriculture including India. Any deviation from the monsoon causes problems for the farm community and poses threat to food security in the region. The variability in precipitation in India has actually increased in recent years. While comparing the variability of precipitation (given by standard deviation) between two phases, 1950-75 and 1976-2010, in two geographically dispersed districts...

A new report on India's housing sector confirms with facts and figures what has been suspected all along: that despite growing demand for affordable housing, supply side responses have been weak and sluggish. This means even though the housing sector can directly impact employment and income generation, and has multiple forward and backward linkages with various industries, it needs innovative ideas, pro-poor thinking and policy stimulus. (See link below for...

-The Telegraph The Centre has announced sweeping changes in rural employment scheme NREGA ahead of next summer's elections, promising family members of job cardholders more benefits and faster payments besides including new projects. Most changes are aimed at reducing payment delays, described by beneficiaries and activists as the bane of the UPA's showcase welfare plan. A highlight of the revamp is a plan to engage a family member of an NREGA worker as...

-The Business Standard Policymaking in India is more often than not credited for its high nuisance value, rather than for positively aiding growth. Whether oil & gas, power, mining or any other core sector of the economy, government policy has frequently hampered rather than assisted the positive development of these industries. There is however one segment of the renewable energy space - solar power, that's vastly benefitted from concerted government action...

-Down to Earth A Kerala village grows organic pokkali rice after 25 years Harvest of pokkali rice in Kerala's Ezhupunna village, which began on October 27 and lasted three weeks, was nothing short of a local event. After all, the indigenous, saline and flood-resistant rice variety was cultivated in the village after 25 years. People in the village had to wage a long battle to be able to cultivate the crop once...