-The Week Telangana leader claims he is making astronomical profits from capsicum farming Telangana: Not many politicians who own land are farmers. But Telangana Rashtra Samithi president K. Chandrasekhara Rao is different. While he ensures Telangana remains a burning issue, Rao is also busy growing capsicum, potato, bitter gourd, and bottle gourd. The capsicum crop itself, he claims, will fetch him Rs.10 crore. His claim of huge returns and promise of land...

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 Hindu Journalism, which is often characterised by "superficiality and dilettantism," will benefit greatly from the contributions of scholars covering serious issues such as the agrarian crisis in India, according to N. Ram, Chairman, Kasturi and Sons, which publishes The Hindu. Delivering a lecture on ‘News Media and Agrarian Issues' at the Tenth Anniversary Conference of the Foundation for Agrarian Studies (FAS) Mr. Ram urged scholars and specialists to conduct workshops for...

-Outlook Lucknow: Taking note of media reports and state-level reviews over the delay in clearance of wages under the rural job scheme, Union Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh has written a letter to Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav urging him to ensure prompt payments. The letter, dated January 8, states that it has been mentioned in the law that payments under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MNREGS) have...

-The Hindu Hyderabad: The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has brought in a fresh wave of hope, but it is too early to assess its performance, observed social activist Aruna Roy. "AAP's unique and new strategies have led to their electoral success but water, power and corruption are not the only issues. They need to lay out a broader framework and take a stand on various other issues, especially in rural parts...