-IANS Referring to the debate on security of Aadhaar data, Prasad said the biometric information -- which includes iris scan and fingerprints -- is stored in an encrypted form and is very secure. In a bid to check the menace of multiple driving licences being issued to individuals, the central government will soon introduce linking of Aadhaar with driving licences, Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said on Friday. The Minister for Electronics and...

-Press release from NREGA Sangharsh Morcha For the past five days, hundreds of National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) workers and their supporters from across the country have gathered at Jantar Mantar to demand the implementation of the employment guarantee act in letter and spirit. They are demanding a substantial increase in the NREGA wages, timely payment of wages, implementation of local plans, expansion of existing entitlements and adequate budget for...

-News18.com Nearly every section that constitutes the socio-political economy of Sikar district has turned up to lend support to the farmers' protest, be it students, anganwadi workers, the city bus union, the autorickshaw union, the small traders association or the pump set workers. Sikar: Something unusual is happening in Sikar. For the past 10 days, an agitation is being held at the farmer mandi of the district headquarters here. But what is...

-TheWire.in Private moneylenders are a major source of loans across the region, and with the collapse of Banking in rural areas, their role has only grown. Baliram Kadpe is critical of the Maharashtra government. “Farmers do not get the minimum support price [for their crops, from the state],” he says with concern. “And it is tedious for them to acquire crop loans.”  Kadpe believes if the state ensures that farmers have access...

-The Financial Express The distress in rural India on account of a glut-induced crash in prices of farm commodities will likely alleviate soon as prices tend to look up, but statistical factors will keep farm-sector growth subdued in the short-term. A crash in prices kept growth in nominal gross value added (GVA) for the agriculture and allied sector above the expansion in real term in Q1FY18 for the first time in five...