-The Indian express The I&B Ministry has asked all ministries to furnish success stories from states over the last one year in the flagship schemes implemented by them. After Prime Minister Narendra Modi publicly trashed it, and Union minister Nitin Gadkari slammed it in an internal note, the rural Development Ministry is learnt to have included the “success stories” of the Mahatma Gandhi National rural Employment Guarantee Act in the list of...

-The Hindu The State’s recent experience shows that even the worst-governed States can reform their public distribution system and make good use of the National Food Security Act. “In Lalu’s days we had a lal card [BPL card], with Nitish we got coupons, and when Manjhi came we got this new ration card”. This is how Anuj Paswan, a Dalit resident of Tetar village in Gaya district, sees recent changes in Bihar’s...

-Livemint.com The ministry of agriculture projected that foodgrain production of cereal and pulses was likely to decline by 5.3% in 2014-15 New Delhi: There seems to be no end rural India’s worries. Last year’s drought together with unseasonal weather earlier this year is threatening a substantial decline in foodgrain output—the first in five years of such magnitude. On Wednesday, the ministry of agriculture projected that foodgrain production—at 251 million tonnes (mt) of cereal...

-The Tribune Grains Of Discontent: The damage to wheat crop due to untimely rain and hailstorm, followed by delayed payments, this rabi season has further stressed Punjab’s farmers. While the cost of farm inputs has risen manifold over the past few years, the profit margin is on a constant decline, thus making farming unviable. Unable to bear losses, several farmers have committed suicide in recent past As the day breaks, he enters...

-Livemint.com Increase in calorie consumption in rural and urban areas has surprised sceptics who doubted the sharpest fall in poverty seen in the last decade since the 1980s A long-standing puzzle in the Indian context has been the steady decline in calorie intake over the years despite economic progress. Many have argued that the decline in calorie consumption as seen from the surveys of National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) is evidence...