-The Indian Express Whichever party comes to power at the Centre, India is making a policy shift to direct income support. The festival of democracy started with the first phase of polling on April 11. Ideally, it should be celebrated like Holi, forgetting past enmity and embracing each other with love. But, unfortunately, it is being fought like the battle of Kurukshetra in the epic, Mahabharata. All the weapons of politics...

-The Hindu Governments can provide direct cash transfers while creating conditions for employment With the Congress promising through the Nyuntam Aay Yojana (NYAY) scheme ?6,000 every month to the poorest 20% of households if voted to power, Mahendra Dev and Pronab Sen talk of the importance and problems of direct cash transfers. Providing social protection is important even as governments try to create conditions for income-generating activities, they say in a discussion...

-Frontline.in The cash transfer schemes the Narendra Modi government and several State governments have announced to woo the peasantry ahead of the election, like the loan waivers, short-change farmers because they avoid the vital issue of remunerative prices for farm produce. In a sudden flurry of new-found concern for the long-suffering Indian peasant, parties across the political spectrum are desperately trying to woo this section of society. In fact, ever since...

-Scroll.in Landless farmers are left out of Telangana’s Rythu Bandhu, but nominally included in Odisha’s Kalia. For two decades, Chinthanna Linganna, 55, has cultivated agricultural land leased from others in Talamadugu village in Telangana’s Adilabad district. He currently rents 20 acres of land to grow cotton. Since May, the people who own this land have received cheques of up to Rs 1.6 lakh from the state government as agricultural investment support. Linganna...

-The Indian Express CEO Surendra Kumar did not respond to calls for comment on the BJD allegation. BJP leader Pratap Sarangi, however, said: “They (BJD) are desperate and know they will be defeated. That is why they are attacking the CEO Odisha.” Bhubaneswar: The ruling BJD Monday alleged that the Odisha Chief Electoral Officer had stopped implementation of the Krushak Assistance for Livelihood and Income Augmentation (Kalia) scheme, the state government’s...