A recent report by the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) enlightens one about the state of farmers' income and indebtedness in 2015-16. Entitled NABARD All India Rural Financial Inclusion Survey 2016-17 – in short NAFIS 2016-17 – the report says that between 2012-13 and 2015-16 the average monthly income for agricultural households grew by around 39 percent. One may recall that the Key Indicators of Situation Assessment Survey...

-Livemint.com Preference for government jobs is highest among college-educated rural youth, a segment seen at the forefront of recent agitations for quotas, shows analysis In one of the largest such exercises ever conducted in the world, millions of applicants are appearing this month for an online recruitment test conducted by the Indian Railways. The Railways Recruitment Board (RRB) has received more than 24 million applications for roughly 120,000 vacancies in the organization. Most...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: The proportion of jobless people rose significantly in India across education levels between 2011 and 2016, an economics professor's analysis of two sample surveys suggests. The findings by Santosh Mehrotra, chairperson of the Centre for Labour Studies at JNU, appear to question the Centre's claims about job creation although the period under focus covers only the first two years of Narendra Modi's rule, along with the last three...

-Newsclick.in Food grain availability for Indians has increased by just 3.3% since 1961. On this 72nd Independence Day of our India, while there will be the usual speeches and festivities, spare a thought to this shocking bit of news: average availability of food grains for every Indian has increased by 3.3% since 1961. Food grains includes wheat, rice, other cereals and pulses. Among these, per person availability of pulses has actually declined...

-The Hindu Business Line New Delhi: The income of agricultural households, which account for nearly half the rural households in the country, surged to Rs 1,07,172 in 2015-16 at a annual compound growth rate (CAGR) of 12 per cent since 2012-13. According to a rural survey carried out by the National Bank for Agricultural & Rural Development (Nabard), while the average annual income levels of non-agricultural households in 2015-16 stood at Rs...