-The Hindu We need to rethink social safety nets in India’s growing economy so that they can also focus on the accidents of life rather than solely on the accidents of birth. Sometimes the grand narratives of the Left and the Right do not seem to have any relationship with the lived experiences of ordinary Indians. For the past two decades, the Left has tried to expand social welfare programmes for the...

-Deccan Herald Buoyed by the incentives announced by the government, farmers appear to have taken up cultivation of pulses in a big way this year. New Delhi: According to the data released by the Agriculture Ministry, pulses acreage has increased 39% as compared to the same period last year. Sowing of coarse cereals and oil seeds has also increased but acreage of sugar cane and cotton has declined. The area under pulses cultivation was...

-Frontline The inability to resolve pressing problems with respect to the production, distribution and availability of food is one of the important failures of the entire economic reform process. IN the fateful month of July 1991, when the devaluation of the Indian rupee presaged the introduction of a whole series of liberalising economic reforms, agriculture was very far from the minds of most policymakers and commentators. The immediate focus was on...

-Business Standard Unlike in the previous years, both the states have received normal to excess rainfall from June till July 12 Hyderabad: Pulses, oil seeds and maize are among the top crops that are leading the ongoing Kharif sowings in both Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, even though there is still a couple of more weeks left for the sowing of irrigated dry (ID) crops during the current season. In Telangana, pulses and soybean...

-Livemint.com Govt’s plan to cover 80% farmers falling apart as banks have disbursed loans to only 3.1 million farmers in the kharif season Mumbai: Maharashtra government’s plan to cover 80% of the state’s 13.7 million farmers under institutionalised crop credit in 2016-17 seems to be falling apart. By 30 June, a large network of public, private and district co-operative banks had disbursed crop loans to only 3.1 million farmers in the...