-Newsclick.in The ruling party has won just 18% of municipal council wards and 12% of municipal panchayat wards. Contrary to the euphoria being exhibited by the mainstream media and BJP, results of the UP civic body elections are not a one sided victory of the ruling BJP. If anything, these results coming so close to the state Assembly elections held earlier this year, show the rapid disenchantment taking place with the BJP...

-Hindustan Times The design of large injections of public funds for India’s agriculture economy needs to be informed with rigorous evaluations on what is effective for higher farm productivity. A wage subsidy for farm-labour is one modification that needs an evaluation, to generate evidence to inform how the MGNREGA policy generates employment when there is need, but without stress to farm production Indian agriculture is witnessing a period of complex socio-Economic Distress,...

-Down to Earth Between 2001 and 2010, over 2,600 farmers committed suicide in Odisha and this year, drought has already broken their economic backbone Brunda Sahu, a farmer in Odisha’s Bargarh district, set his paddy field on fire on Tuesday after he was frustrated with the alleged cold response of the district administration to the crop damaged by pests. A day later, he went to the same field in Kalapani village in...

-Livemint.com In India, 9 million people left farming between 2001 and 2011 largely due to distress, not because industry invited them, says Shyam Khadka, India’s representative at the FAO Shyam Khadka, India’s representative at the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, says more Indians are moving out of agriculture due to distress and not because the manufacturing sector is inviting them. In an interview, Khadka calls for converting food...

-The Hindu It is crucial to align policy across sectors and upgrade the country’s social infrastructure In India’s highly segmented labour market, one can still discern at least three demographic groups that are in urgent need of jobs: a growing number of better educated youth; uneducated agricultural workers who wish to leave agricultural distress behind; and young women, who too are better educated than ever before. India is indeed the fastest growing large economy...