-The Indian Express On Sunday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will roll out the Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PMJAY), which will provide an annual health cover of Rs 5 lakh for 50 crore people in 26 states. Mewat: LEANING BACK on a steel chair at City Care Hospital in Nuh, Mohammed Haneef is patiently waiting for a doctor to treat his “throat pain”, unsure of what the bill will finally add up...

-Livemint.com Merely putting the labour component of other projects in MGNREGA may not lead to any value addition There are several studies and reports that clearly show that the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) has accomplished its objectives to a large extent. Initially, this government derided the programme as some kind of a dole—but it later acknowledged its role in rural development, if reluctantly. The chief ministers’ council in...

-Business Standard The total kharif crop acreage in UP now stands at more than 9 Mn Ha, including 6 Mn Ha of paddy and 1.7 Mn Ha of pulses Lucknow: Bountiful rainfall in arid Bundelkhand region of Uttar Pradesh has not only ended the drought spell of previous years but has also translated into the kharif acreage rising by almost 50,000 hectares this year. The area under different kharif (summer) crops across 7...

-Livemint.com While Farmers will receive a 12% penal interest payment for delays in settling claims, state governments will be penalised if they delay in depositing their share of subsidies New Delhi: Faced with a sharp decline in the number of Farmers signing up for its flagship crop insurance scheme, the centre on Tuesday imposed a 12% penalty on insurance companies for delayed settlement of claims. Under the new guidelines that will take effect...

-The Hindu Findings of study carried out in the Arkavathy sub-basin. Despite water crisis, Farmers in villages around the Arkavathy sub-basin have been growing water intensive crops, according to a study by Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE) published in the journal Irrigation and Drainage. The study, 'Adapting or Chasing Water? Crop Choice and Farmers; Responses to Water Stress in peri?urban Bangalore’, was a part of an extensive socio-hydrological...