-Newsclick.in On Saturday, the Ministry of Rural Development denied that the rural jobs scheme was facing a shortage of funds. Its response, however, “leaves many questions unanswered,” according to civil society members. Activists have questioned the Centre’s response to media reports on the shortage of available funds for the rural employment guarantee scheme in the current financial year, by alleging that it is “misleading” and that it leaves many raised questions “unanswered.” Last...

-Down to Earth A survey in Haryana last year found that 45 per cent of 218 organic farmers got yields for wheat better than the state official average yield  The relative merit of organic farming is recognised. Still, it is usually recommended only for areas of low chemical usage and not for intensively farmed areas such as those where the Green Revolution took place in the 1960s like Punjab, Haryana and western...

-Hindustan Times Additional railway rakes, or train wagons, were being made available to ship fertilisers on a priority basis and at short notice, an official said. The Union government has formed a “crack team” to ensure priority movement of fertilisers to key food-bowl states as fears of shortage have triggered panic buying of crop nutrients, people familiar with the matter said. For the first time, a hub-and-spoke model is being implemented to take...

-MGNREGA National Tracker (1 April-30 September 2021) by Peoples' Action for Employment Guarantee (PAEG), released on 29th October 2021 Highlights of the Tracker: • The total budget allocation for NREGA is 34 percent less than the revised budget for the previous year. • Remaining Funds Can Cover At Most 13 Days of Employment per Household till March 31, 2022. • Pending liabilities from previous years amount to 17,180 crores, 23.53 percent of the total...

-The Hindu The RBI deputy governor reminded the industry that their customers often have lower level of financial awareness and literacy and ‘are often too desperate to turn away any source of credit’. Micro-finance lenders must refrain from chasing profits and introspect on the ‘negative consequences’ of pushing their borrowers into a debt trap, using harsh recovery practices and harassing customers as this could undo the sector’s progress, a top central banker...