-The Economic Times Indian farmer's plight has changed little even under GST that aims to revolutionise all kinds of businesses. NEW DELHI: That the farmer has historically had one of the most unrewarding and thankless jobs in India is fairly common knowledge. Data sets after data sets show how Indian farmers have remained hopelessly caught between ineffective policy and equally ineffective implementation — through the Five-Year-PLAns era, through successive governments, and through...

-Economic and Political Weekly Policies ensuring food security and nutrition support require a renewed focus and sense of urgency. It is a national shame that, even several decades after independence, the country has not been able to free itself from the problem of hunger and malnutrition that endangers the life and health of the population, especially that of children, women, and vulnerable groups. The global hunger index (GHI) published this year has...

-Financial Express If panchayat allocations are merged with MGNREGA to aid asset creation, it can trigger infrastructure growth, resulting in extra income and improved conditions. There is a lot of debate around 5% GDP growth and its impact on the organised sector. Although the government has been taking multiple steps to trigger the economy, there is a need to focus on rural India, in terms of optimising of fund allocations and revision...

-The Indian Express Urban areas require a different approach to end open defecation. The Swachh Bharat Mission is being executed by two different ministries — the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation for rural areas and the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs for urban areas. In the rural areas, the major challenge was to change the mindset of the populace so that they would start using household toilets rather than...

-The Indian Express According to the government’s direction, a district magistrate has to preside over four meetings of the committee every month and ensure implementation of sundry recommendations of the committee. Patna: With the recently released National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data for 2017 PLAcing Bihar at the second worst position for the third consecutive year so far with respect to cases of atrocities against Dalits, the state’s General Administration Department...