-The Indian Express Before contemplating new rural programmes, government must expand MGNREGA In the run up to the elections, a plethora of redistributive programmes, including farm loan waivers, cash transfers and minimum income guarantees came to the forefront as campaigners sought to balm rural distress. Amongst these is a proposal to launch a revised NREGA 3.0, in which 150 days of employment would be guaranteed to the rural poor. Almost 15...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Extending the assured income support (PM-Kisan) scheme for farmers, approved by the new government in its first Cabinet meeting last Friday, will also benefit over eight lakh big landholders — having landholding size of 10 hectares (nearly 25 acres) and more — across the country. Though such big landholders account for merely 0.6% of total farmers in India, their numbers in some states, such as Rajasthan,...

-Down to Earth Despite the rural hinterland being in the throes of agrarian distress, the incumbent coalition has won handsomely in these very areas The incumbent Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) has beaten all odds to win the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Prominent among these odds was the agrarian crisis that rural India is currently in the throes of. Since 2014, the country has suffered two major droughts and 850-odd...

-The Hindu Say policymakers induce farmers to adopt incongruent crop pattern, causing water crisis Pune: The water crisis in Maharashtra is a “policy-induced failure”, according to economists and water academics who have specifically warned of the ‘desertification’ of the parched Marathwada region in the near future. “It is the ecological illiteracy of policy-makers and the selfishness of the power elite in inducing farmers across Marathwada to adopt a crop pattern that is not...

-The Hindu Business Line Output next season may see a steep fall Pune: The sugarcane cultivation in Maharashtra is likely to decline due to drought in 26 districts in the state. The State government is collecting the data of cane cultivation and according to sources the decline in cane cultivation will have a drastic impact on sugar production. Primary estimates show that production in the next season might be reduced to just...