-The Indian Express The last quarterly survey by the Labour Bureau showed that India has never created so few jobs, since the survey started in 2009 The last quarterly survey by the Labour Bureau showed that India has never created so few jobs, since the survey started in 2009, as in 2015: Only 1.35 lakh jobs compared to more than nine lakh in 2011 and 4.19 lakh in 2013 in eight labour-intensive...

-Down to Earth Blog MGNREGA has been successful in Madhya Pradesh. Can the scheme also provide solutions for the current drought in the region? Sevanti Bai (45) lives alone in a village in Madhya Pradesh. Her husband died fifteen years ago, owing to health complications. With no land or children to depend on, she fends for herself by engaging in ‘rojgaar guarantee, as the locals call the scheme. MGNREGA, she says, has...

-The Hindu The Hindu decided to find out whether these forecasts have worked in the past. Answer (based on 10 years of forecast data): not very accurately Chennai: Following the India Meteorological Department’s forecast of an ‘above normal’ monsoon of 106 per cent of the Long Period Average (LPA) on Tuesday, The Hindu decided to find out whether these forecasts have worked in the past. Answer (based on 10 years of forecast...

-The Hindu Business Line Timely interventions through medical innovations can transform the lives of mothers and children, not simply save them A couple of years ago, I was in a primary health centre delivery room in Shivgarh and saw a beaming mother with her three-hour-old baby girl happily feeding at the breast. Three hours earlier, this contented baby was born without a cry, still, and blue in colour. Fortunately, the midwife present,...

-The Indian Express A new initiative attempts to economically empower villagers living near Kanha National Park, and protect its green cover and wildlife. The Kanha–Pench forest corridor is rich in biodiversity and home to a large concentration of tigers, leopards, gaurs, barasingha, and cheetal. But with the population of the villages increasing and land holdings shrinking, conservation efforts were paramount. If the needs of the villagers for improved livelihoods are not...