-The Hindu Business Line At present, panchayats make no contribution to the design of schemes. Their autonomy is negligible. This needs to change Decentralisation has long been recognised as an efficient instrument for promoting economic democracy, and delivering services to meet the needs of people. There are three different channels for decentralisation — political, administrative and fiscal. Political decentralisation promotes trust and cooperation between government agencies and citizens. Administrative decentralisation enables authority...

-Newsclick.in A guaranteed MSP system will also reduce public storage costs/wastage if it is complemented by a universal public distribution system. The year-long protest by farmers and workers compelled the Centre to repeal the three contentious farm laws, which were designed to further corporate encroachment in agriculture, on November 29. On December 11, the protest ended but not before the protesters reiterated their demand for a legal guarantee on Minimum Support Price...

-Down to Earth 77% packaged drinking water units in 18 states operating without no-objection certificates The Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) conducted the performance audit of groundwater management and regulation to analyse the extent of groundwater scarcity in the country. The audit report was presented in the Parliament December 21, 2021. The audit was conducted on the basis of five years of data (2013-2018) on groundwater management and regulation in India. The...

-Down to Earth Eligibility threshold for FPOs should be reduced or support provided to meet the criteria, experts feel Farmer producer organisations (FPO) figure prominently in government policies and the ambitious plan to double farmers’ income by 2022. But funds remain elusive for these bodies, according to a recent analysis.  Just 1-5 per cent of FPOs have received funding under central government schemes introduced to promote them in the last seven years, the...

Recent media reports point out that the Bundelkhand region of Uttar Pradesh is likely to get about Rs. 6,300 crore projects ahead of the upcoming Uttar Pradesh assembly polls, including a Rs. 400 crore worth plant for the propulsion system of anti-tank guided missiles in Jhansi. The foundation was laid for the first project in the Jhansi node (related to the Uttar Pradesh Defence Industrial Corridor) on November 18, 2021. The two...