-Zee News Agriculture is consistently losing its importance in India's economic growth. The agriculture sector contributes to just 15 percent of India's Gross Domestic Product (GDP), but over 50 percent of the population is still dependent on it. The farm sector, including forestry and fishing, grew by 3.2 percent in the quarter ending September, as compared o 3.8 percent in previous quarter and 4.7 percent in 2013-14. For the entire financial...
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India's rural employment programme is dying a death of funding cuts -Jayati Ghosh
-The Guardian After a decade of success, the landmark scheme is being starved of money by a Central Government seemingly intent on reining in rural wage growth Ten years ago this week, the Indian parliament unanimously passed the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA). It was a historic legislation based on two interlinked goals: ensuring livelihood security to rural residents by providing at least 100 days of guaranteed wage employment...
More »If it’s not Bihar, it’ll be UP
-The Financial Express With the High Level Committee (HLC) on restructuring FCI pointing to a 47% leakage in the 55 million tonnes of grain distributed through ration shops, the only viable solution is to shut down the PDS as the HLC has recommended be done over a period of time. Not surprisingly, many have argued that, in states that have restructured their ration shop operations-such as Chhattisgarh-there has been a dramatic...
More »For the sake of the Good Earth -Rita Sharma
-The Tribune In India, mounting demographic pressures are leading to soil degradation. About 17 per cent of the global human and 11 per cent of livestock population is being sustained on a mere 2 per cent of the world's land and 4 per cent of its freshwater resources. The year 2015 has been designated as the International Year of the Soils by the United Nations. Recently, December 5 was commemorated as World...
More »High pesticides in vegetables and other foods: Government report
-PTI NEW DELHI: A high level of pesticides was found in 509 samples out of 16,790 comprising veggies, fruits, spices, rice, wheat and other food items in 2013-14, said a latest government report. Most of the vegetables showed relatively higher pesticide residue detection in rainy season followed by summer and winter seasons, it said. However the samples of meat, milk and surface water did not have pesticides above maximum residue level, it...
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