-Hindustan Times An examination of RBI data indicates that peasants turning to construction are increasingly at the same income levels as farming, in probably more challenging conditions. Shifting agricultural workers to remunerative non-farm jobs, is India’s central challenge on the employment front. The construction sector has been a mainstay of non-farm jobs over the last two decades. However, these jobs are increasingly losing their remunerative potential. The KLEM (Capital with a K, Labour,...

-The Hindu Only 44% of households in Bihar, U.P. use toilets 100% of the time: survey Kerala and Mizoram top the list of States, with 100% of households which do not practise open defecation, while Uttar Pradesh and Bihar are at the bottom of the rankings, with less than 44% of such households, The Hindu’s analysis of the raw data generated by a government-commissioned survey finds. Sixty eight per cent of rural households...

-Business Standard While ADVVDRS was hailed as a key reason for UPA's return to power in 2009, the scheme itself later drew flak for its flaws, with CAG finding many of the accounts ineligible for waiver or relief In order to help the country’s small and marginal farmers, the Congress party has promised to bring a nationwide loan waiver scheme on the lines of its 2009 programme, should the party be voted...

-ThePrint.in Renowned agricultural economist Sardara Singh Johl takes on father of green revolution M.S. Swaminathan’s idea of raising MSP to 1.5 times the production costs. New Delhi: Renowned agricultural economist Sardara Singh Johl agrees with M.S. Swaminathan, the man credited as the father of the ‘green revolution’, on the futility of loan waivers to ease farm distress. But he disagrees with a much-touted recommendation of the committee on tackling the farm crisis Swaminathan...

-IANS Farmer suicides have been taking place across India for years now, and studies of rural distress reveal the deeply-rooted, tenacious causes, such as lack of irrigation, fragmentation of land, unsuitability of seeds and inadequate sources of credit. Despite the democratically-elected governments that claim to represent a country where over half the population is dependent on farming, agriculture has been consistently ignored at a steep cost to farmers' lives. Remedies have been...