-The Telegraph The activists flagged a reply by the Jharkhand food, and civil supplies department during the monsoon session about payment of food security allowances Jamshedpur: Food security activists in Jharkhand are pained at the difference between the government's claim in the state Assembly on the implementation of the National Food Security Act, 2013, and stark realities at the ground level. The activists have flagged a reply by the Jharkhand food, and civil...

-TheWeek.in Efforts on to substitute wheat and paddy crops with other market-driven crops Madhya Pradesh government launched a crop diversification promotion scheme with focus on natural farming and on substituting wheat and paddy crops with other crops that are suitable for local climate and are market driven. The crop diversification scheme has been launched for three years starting the current financial year (2022-23), to encourage demand-based crop diversification, keeping in mind the economic...

-TheWire.in States like Delhi (despite its unique multi-party governance architecture), West Bengal, Kerala (or even Goa and Sikkim) perform better compared to UP when it comes to being measured for securing access to basic social, economic services. In a veiled attack against BJP’s political opponents, accusing them of promising ‘freebies’ (revdi) in exchange for electoral votes, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday cautioned people, especially the youth, against this “revdi culture”, saying...

-TheWire.in Why should the money collected through purpose-specific cesses be funneled into a state's consolidated fund? On July 20, 2022, the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG)’s report on Kerala’s finances for the fiscal year 2020-21 was tabled in the state assembly. Amongst several other observations, this report has noted how funds being kept outside the ‘Consolidated Fund’ of the state. The context here is the manner in which Kerala treats cess...

-Down to Earth The Union government's claim about being on track to double farmers' income sounds hollow as it has not even spent the allocated budget for agrarian schemes in three of the past five years  On February 28, 2016 Prime Minister Narendra Modi pledged to double farmers’ income by 2022-23—his gift to the country in its 75th year of independence. In the six years since then, the Union government has not...