-The Indian Express For my first field visit to study the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) a few years ago, Nikhil Dey took me from Jaipur to Rajsamand, where I met a team from the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS) and the block officers they worked with. The block officers explained how the details of each day of work provided under the MGNREGS was entered online at nrega.nic.in....

The agrarian crisis is far from over. Amidst news of farmers' suicide reported from parts of Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra, an official document released in December by the National Sample Survey Organisation states that nearly 52% of India's agricultural households were indebted during July, 2012 - June, 2013. The average amount of outstanding loan per agricultural household in India was Rs. 47000 (see link below). Based on a survey of...

-Down to Earth Twice as many villages as in 2012 affected this time More areas in Maharashtra are to be officially declared drought-affected. Another 5,700 villages are to be added to the list of drought-hit areas, taking the total number of villages which lost more than 50 per cent crops to around 24,000. This figure is twice the number of villages affected by the 2012 drought in the state. The findings have come...

-The Financial Express Besides better yield, mechanisation leads to a rise in labour employment   India is known as the land of agriculture, with a holding of nearly 157 million hectares of cultivable land, making our country the second-largest agricultural landholder in the world. With over 58% of the country's population depending on agriculture for earning livelihood, it is also the biggest employment avenue in the country. The Indian Green Revolution is regarded as...

-IPS News SUNDARBANS: November is the cruelest month for landless families in the Indian Sundarbans, the largest single block of tidal mangrove forest in the world lying primarily in the eastern Indian state of West Bengal. There is little agricultural wage-work to be found, and the village moneylender's loan remains unpaid, its interest mounting. The paddy harvest is a month away, pushing rice prices to an annual high. For those like Namita Bera,...