-Economic and Political Weekly The runaway growth in states of subsidised solar pumps, which provide quality energy at near-zero marginal cost, can pose a bigger threat of groundwater over-exploitation than free power has done so far. The best way to meet this threat is by paying farmers to "grow" solar power as a remunerative cash crop. Doing so can reduce pressure on aquifers, cut the subsidy burden on electricity companies, reduce...
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Women on the Edge of Land and Life -Manipadma Jena
-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,...
More »Why axe only MGNREGA? Mr Modi, we need to talk -Abhijit Banerjee
-The Hindustan Times One does not have to agree with his views to be intrigued by the possibilities opened up by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's emergence as communicator/harangue-master in chief. Public conversations about who we are and who we want to be are key to the vitality of our democracy, and leaders can seed those conversations when they speak out their own views. When I hear people in the Delhi metro...
More »Solution glosses over key problem: farmers are landless -Sreenivas Janyala
-The Indian Express Oorugonda/ Warangal: Twenty -two kilometres from Warangal, a narrow road from National Highway 202 leads to Oorugonda, a village of around a thousand farmers in Atmakur mandal. An eerie silence hangs around it, with a few middle-aged men sitting under a tree looking up inquisitively at visitors. They are not done grieving for 40-year-old Modanti Krishnamma. Last week, she killed herself after the cotton crop she and her husband...
More »BJP-ruled states slow in linking Jan Dhan with Aadhaar -Sandeep Singh
-The Indian Express New Delhi: Even as Prime Minister Narendra Modi has made the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) a flagship programme of his government, BJP-ruled states seem to be lagging behind in linking these accounts with Aadhaar - the first step towards enabling direct benefit transfers. Among the large states which accounted for over 10 lakh Jan Dhan accounts as on November 12, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh top the list,...
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