-The Indian Express Agriculture’s contribution to poverty reduction is five times more than that of metropolitan centres Speaking at the third BRICS Urbanisation Forum in Visakhapatnam on September 14, Deputy Chairman of the Niti Ayog, Arvind Panagariya, announced that “Without cities we can’t grow rapidly”. He added, “urbanisation plays an important role in poverty alleviation”. Both claims are exaggerated and somewhat misleading. A recent report prepared for the UN points out that, over...
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Rural India in grip of severe malnutrition -Gudipati Rajendera Kumar
-TheHansIndia.com Even through the Indian economy has been growing steadily in the post-reform years, more and more people in rural India, where 833 million Indians (70 per cent) live, people are consuming fewer nutrients than are required to stay healthy, according to a National Nutrition Monitoring Bureau (NNMB) survey. In rural population, cereals and millets form the bulk of the diet. In general, the rural population subsisting on an inadequate diet as...
More »Massive Slump in MNREGA Work After Centre's Unofficial Instructions -Nitin Sethi
-TheWire.in The Centre’s off-record instructions through WhatsApp and a squeeze on funds made the rural work programme crash after a roaring first half of the year. This is second of a two-part series. Read part one here. The WhatsApp messages from the central rural development ministry to states had a chilling effect on the work given under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA) after the roaring demand growth in the...
More »No one asks the farmer -Harish Damodaran
-The Indian Express The opposition’s main contention is that the GM mustard hybrid incorporates three alien genes — barnase, barstar and bar — rendering it inherently unsafe for human and animal health. Fifty years ago, Union Minister for Food and Agriculture Chidambaram Subramaniam took the decision to import 18,000 tonnes of seeds of Lerma Rojo 64A and Sonora 64 wheat from Mexico. The seeds arrived just in time for their planting in...
More »Gujarat's 'uncles' and their employment exchanges -Rutam Vora
-The Hindu Business Line Despite a recent crackdown, employers continue to wield power in the child labour racket Rajan (name changed) is nowhere to be seen. About a month ago, the 12-year-old and his younger brother Yash (name changed) were working at a roadside tea stall located on one of the busiest roads in the financial capital of Gujarat. The tea stall, as claimed by the boy, was owned by his 'uncle'...
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