Although social activists and concerned economists demanded at least Rs. 1 lakh crore to be earmarked in favour of the Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), the Finance Minister in her budget speech on 1st February allocated only Rs.61,500 crore to it for the financial year 2020-21. As compared to the fund spent on MGNREGA in 2019-20 (i.e. revised estimate of Rs.71,001.81 crore), the amount set aside for the...
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Is concrete the way forward in rebuilding the Sunderbans? -Megnaa Mehtta & Debjani Bhattacharyya
-The Telegraph Since 2007, the Bay of Bengal basin has seen at least 15 major cyclones, including Sidr in 2007, Aila in 2009, Phailin in 2013, Hudhud in 2014, Bulbul in 2019 and Amphan this year. Amphan made landfall in the Sunderbans, home to five million people, on May 20. More than 13.2 billion dollars worth of property was destroyed and more than 500,000 people left homeless. An Unesco heritage site,...
More »Can government decide what farmers grow in their fields? -Prabhash K Dutta
-IndiaToday.in Paddy cultivation has been a worry for Water conservationists for long worldwide. And, paddy is not the only water-guzzling crop to have come under the scanner. Beyond the frightening cries of coronavirus outbreak and displaced migrants, a section of farmers in Punjab, Haryana and Telangana, to begin with, are debating this: Can government decide which crop they cultivate in their fields? It began with Punjab. The story began during 1970's as a...
More »Conservation agriculture key to better income, environment protection: Study -TV Jayan
-The Hindu Business Line New Delhi: Resorting to conservation agriculture would not only increase crop yield, income and reduce the use of natural resources, but would also confer climate change benefits, according to a study by Indian agricultural scientists and others published in an international journal on Thursday. The study, published in the journal Nature Sustainability, also showed that conservation agriculture was key to meeting many of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals...
More »Step-wells, done well -Aasheesh Sharma
-IndiaToday.in Restoring baolis can help combat the Capital’s water problem, as well as conserve an age-old engineering marvel They say you cannot walk more than a few hundred yards in Delhi without colliding with history. Along with the hundreds of monuments lining up the national capital are some home-grown marvels of indigenous engineering. These stepwells, or baolis, commissioned by the erstwhile rulers of Dilli not just helped propagate the message of water...
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