Breakthroughs in the production and productivity of wheat and rice in the sixties and of cotton recently have been much appreciated, but similar advances in maize have gone largely unnoticed and unsung. Maize output has soared in the past 10 years from a mere 12 million tonnes in 2000-01 to over 21 million tonnes in 2010-11. This increase can largely be attributed to a surge in crop productivity rather than...
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Ramesh for BC Model for payment of MGNREGA wages
-PTI Union Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh today suggested the rajasthan government to implement Banking Correspondent (BC) Model in the state for payment to MGNREGA workers in time. Ramesh, while attending a meeting with rajasthan Panchayati Raj Minister Bharat Singh and social activist Aruna Roy, he said delay or late payment of wages discourages MGNREGA labourers and attributed this to absence of banks outside district headquarters. He said the BC...
More »Making PDS an Effective Weapon by Prabha Jagannathan
In a week when the central food ministry is reviewing the functioning of the much-maligned public distribution system (PDS) and plans to pull up laggard states on poor storage facilities, low grain offtake, high diversion and a persistently slacking programme, an objective relook at the world’s largest grain distribution system is imperative. Agriculture minister Sharad Pawar has time and again emphasised that streamlining the PDS in the usual-suspect states to...
More »Naxalites sexually exploit girls in squad, says arrested member by Uttam Mukherjee
Sunita Kumari alias Shanti, an active member of the CPI (Maoist) group headed by Akshay Kherwar alleged that senior CPI (Maoist) leaders in the Koel-Shankh zone committee sexually exploit women in their squad. Sunita gave here statement before police in Lohardaga on Friday after she was nabbed by a team comprising of Town police station in-charge Patras Nag, CRPF deputy commandant Pawan Kumar Singh and assistant commandant Suresh Kumar from Hesal...
More »Prof. Reetika Khera interviewed by The Economic Times
Matter begins: What is the impact of the National Rural Employment Guarentee Act on rural wages? That is the question that the pundits are asking today. It's a query which feeds into a larger question. Six years have passed since NREGA became a legal reality. What is its village-level impact? It's a complex question to answer. NREGA undertakes to provide employment to anyone who asks for it. Which makes it...
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