-Business Standard Pending labour wages by the end of 2016-17 could be around Rs 3,000-4,000 crore For the second year running, the Centre is likely to approve a labour budget of around 2.2 billion person-days under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA).   The labour budget, for 2017-18, could be enhanced as well, if more demand is generated owing to drought or insufficient rainfall in any part of the country, senior...

-The Hindu Several youth collectives in the State are campaigning to make menstruation a hygienic and normal experience for women Her eyes welled over with pain. A victim in her own body, She crawled into a corner, bleeding. ‘Don’t talk about it’, she was told. Haiku #40 by Saurav Harigovind, MES Medical College Don’t. Don’t is the FIRst lesson that a girl newly inducted to womanhood learns. Do not let anyone know that you bleed, especially men....

-The Times of India Blog Whatever else won UP for BJP it wasn’t development and good governance. Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to office ostensibly on a plank of economic and administrative ‘acche din’. Sadly, he has not delivered. So voters either don’t know his record or they voted for BJP for quite different reasons. What is the prime minister’s record on development and governance? In three years of BJP rule at...

-Down to Earth Meat eating is not the key issue, it is the amount that is consumed and the manner in which it is produced. This is where India differs. Recently at the release of our book FIRst Food: Culture of Taste, which discusses the link between biodiversity, nutrition and livelihoods, I was asked a question. “Why do you not, as an environmentalist espousing the cause of traditional and local diets that...

-The Hindu Business Line Kutch presents an example of robust desert horticulture Over the past decade, the total horticultural land under cultivation of fruits such as pomegranate, mango and date palm has doubled in Kutch and its fruit production has trebled. And why is this a surprise? Because this semi-arid region in Kutch has, through 10 years of toil, transformed the landscape and set an innovative example in desert horticulture. Adversity, they say, can...