-Business Standard Unless irrigation expands, agriculture will not be drought-proof Even as India celebrates the golden jubilee of the Green Revolution, the National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) has come out with data indicating that nearly 70 per cent of farmers subsist on economically unviable farm holdings of less than a hectare in size. Over one-fifth of farm households report salaried employment, and not farming, as the prime source of their income. Around...

-The Hindu The restrictions on private vehicle usage may have got most of the media coverage, but are by no means the only steps the government has announced. Nationally, over 35 per cent of urban households own a motorised two-wheeler and just under 10 per cent own a car, jeep or van. In Delhi, where per capita incomes are among the highest in the country, these proportions are much higher: nearly 40...

-Business Standard Looking at economics behind agricultural households, a survey notes that 68.3% of such households still relied on agriculture as primary source of income Rural distress is a known story but a survey by NSSO has revealed the alarming level of fragmentation in farmland and unavailability of jobs. As many as 69 per cent agricultural households own less than a hectare of farmland each, making farming unviable and forcing migration to...

-The Times of India When Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi asked students of Bengaluru's Mount Carmel if the Modi government's Swachh Bharat Mission was working, he got a mixed response. An analysis of the campaign, well over a year now, shows the progress report is mixed too. Last year, on October 2, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced the ambitious Swachh Bharat Mission, promising to provide toilets to Indian households that still...

-Livemint.com With rural distress taking a turn for the worse due to weather woes and lower crop prices, farmer unions write to PM demanding constitution of commission New Delhi: With rural distress taking a turn for the worse due to weather woes and lower crop prices, leading farmer unions from across the country have written a joint letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi demanding constitution of an income commission that could...