The newly released Situation Assessment Survey of Agricultural Households and Land and Livestock Holdings of Households in Rural India (NSS 77th Round) establishes the fact that the farm households are more and more relying on wage incomes instead of 'net incomes from crop cultivation' for their livelihoods. In Marxian lexicon, proletarisation (a term that we can loosely use for depeasantisation) refers to the process in which the farmers/ tillers are...

-Down to Earth  The past three decades have seen stagnation in acreage, production and productivity of pulses across the country due to a bevy of reasons that include availability of more profitable crops The primary reason behind India’s domestic shortage in pulses is stagnation of production over the past five decades. Overcoming the Pulses Crisis, a 2010 report by the Confederation of Indian Industry, states the production of pulses grew only by...

-Livemint.com The banking system’s y-o-y deposit Growth had slowed to 8.62% by August from about 10% at start of FY22 It is a foregone conclusion that the covid-19 pandemic forced Indians to save more by curtailing the opportunities to spend in FY21. This has stretched to the current financial year because of the second wave of the pandemic. However, a look at the ownership pattern of bank deposits reveals some interesting nuggets. Please...

-The Hindu India’s religious mix has been stable since 1951, says Pew Center study The religious composition of India’s population since Partition has remained largely stable, with both Hindus and Muslims, the two largest religious groups, showing not only a marked decline but also a convergence in fertility rates, according to a new study published by the Pew Research Center, a non-profit based in Washington DC. The study, based on data sourced from...

-The Hindu Palm oil is cheap, versatile and mostly imported. Now, the government has an ambitious plan for the large-scale production of this crop In his Independence Day speech, the Prime Minister announced a scheme to support the Growth of palm oil in India. Three days later, the Cabinet approved a ₹11,040 crore outlay over five years for the National Mission on Edible Oils — Oil Palm, based on the argument that...