-The Times of India About a quarter of all rural households and one in five urban families in India are forced into debt or sale of assets to meet hospitalization costs. This is true across income levels, revealed the National Health Profile 2017 published recently by the Central Bureau of Health Intelligence. In rural India, about two-thirds - ranging from 65.6% in the poorest to 68% for the richest - depend on...

-Down to Earth In the last one decade, it has also helped increase groundwater table by virtue of implementing a range of water conservation measures. Once ridiculed by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the flagship scheme for rural employment, Mahatama Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), has been praised by his own government for helping in increasing rural household income. It has not only helped in increasing groundwater table in the...

-The Hindu India’s mothers are among the most malnourished in the world, but a project empowering women and fighting harmful traditions gives hope for a solution. In a small village tucked away near the Rajasthan-Gujarat border, wafts of spice once filled the air as 40-year-old Dubali Damor warmed chapatis and fried spices for her family’s evening meal. Once ready, her husband and children would tuck into plates of steaming fluffy rice and...

-The Financial Express By setting the target of doubling farmers’ income by 2022, the prime minister has clearly signalled a transition in agri-food policy from an excessive emphasis on foodgrain production towards improving welfare of the farming community. Given the continued excessive employment pressure, proliferation of small landholdings and growing agrarian crisis, this move is indeed an important change in the policy landscape. Doubling farmers’ income, however, requires identification of high-income...

-The Indian Express Governments have not acted on recommendations of committees on farmer welfare How many more farmers must die before the prime minister condescends to take notice? How many rats must the protesting Tamil Nadu farmers at Jantar Mantar eat before the government acts? How many more fake farm loan waiver schemes will be announced before the cabinet realises that farmers cannot be fooled anymore? Despite 300,000 farmers taking their lives...