-The Economic Times NEW DELHI: The Centre has decided to extend its flagship rural jobs scheme to include afforestation as part of a move to create more durable assets through the programme that Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently derided as a living monument to the previous UPA government's failures and promised to overhaul. Officials said the National Mission for a Green India (GIM) and the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act...

-Economic and Political Weekly The National Sample Survey Office's survey of consumption expenditure is woefully inadequate for estimating the number of food-insecure households in India. Future surveys of NSSO need to collect information on the four pillars of food security: availability, access, nutritional adequacy/utilisation and stability. The Comprehensive Nutrition Survey in Maharashtra is an example of such a survey and appears to do a decent job of capturing the different elements...

-The Indian Express The forthcoming budget is expected by some to be make-or-break or path-breaking, by others, to provide a legislative or economic roadmap for the rest of this government's term. Most likely, it will focus on issues within the purview of the finance ministry, namely, macro management, taxation, expenditure, the financial sector and balance of payments. The abolition of the Planning Commission and the 14th Finance Commission recommendations on tax devolution...

-The Hindu Interview with social activist Medha Patkar on why she opposes the Land Bill proposed by the Centre Social activist Medha Patkar has been in the forefront of the struggle for the rights and rehabilitation of project-displaced populations for over two decades, and has relentlessly pursued the formulation of a national rehabilitation policy. She spoke to Gargi Parsai at the site of the agitation in Delhi about the pitfalls in the...

-The Hindu Report on Maharashtra looks at NSS data Mumbai: Nearly 47% out of Maharashtra's total employed population, which is dependent on agriculture, fisheries and forestry as an economic activity, earns only Rs 100 per day on an average. The data is in sheer contradiction with the earnings of 1.36% of the employed population from Information and Communication sector in the state, which on an average earns Rs. 833 per day, higher than...