-The Hindu Over 17,260 persons in Uttar Pradesh get relief of just Rs. 1,000 or less Over 17,260 farmers in Uttar Pradesh have received loan waiver certificates for only Rs. 1,000 or less under a scheme in which the BJP government had promised to waive farm loans of up to Rs. 1 lakh. Of the 17,262 farmers, 4,814 got loan waivers of amounts between Rs. 1 and Rs. 100, while 6,895 received...

-The Indian Express The Supreme Court is hearing a petition challenging making Aadhaar mandatory for availing benefits under various social welfare schemes of the government. The next hearing is in the FIRst week of November. New Delhi: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley Wednesday said the Aadhaar law will “pass the test of constitutionality” and that it is important to build “ironwalls” to protect people’s data. He said the Aadhaar scheme announced by the...

-TheWire.in There a growing chasm between corporate India’s hiring strategy and the aspirations of India’s young workers. The new skill development minister, Dharmendra Pradhan, has a strong track record in digital schemes to deliver subsidised gas to needy households. But he is in for a challenge in the vocational training sector, less amenable to scale economies, woefully dependent on private industry and saddled with the burden of expectations set, FIRst by the...

-Hindustan Times Of the affected states are also those announced farm loan waivers just months ago to bail out beleaguered farming community. With the southwest monsoon season about to end in less than three weeks’ time, the government’s drought warning system predicts there could be a drought in 225 districts across “17 agriculturally important states of India,” putting further strain on distressed agriculture sector. According to the government’s National Agriculture and Drought...

-The Indian Express Prices crashed last year because there was a glut in imports during a year of record production. Government has not corrected the policy snags that led to this anomaly. Pulses are an interesting and unique commodity group in the Indian agri-food space. The country ranks FIRst not only in their production and consumption, but also their import. Domestic absorption in recent years (2012-13 to 2015-16) has hovered between 21...