-The Hindu India's small farmers have been struggling for centuries now and they need social and governmental action to change their future Of India's 121 million agricultural holdings, 99 million are with small and marginal farmers, with a land share of just 44 per cent and a farmer population share of 87 per cent. With multiple cropping prevalent, such farmers account for 70 per cent of all vegetables and 52 per cent...

-The Hindu Business Line The rural job guarantee scheme is threatened by the undermining of its driving force, demand-driven work Is the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) suffering a midlife crisis or are we staring at its death? From a budget of ₹401 billion in 2010-11, it has plummeted to ₹330 billion in 2013-14. Given the much higher wages currently offered to workers, it has taken a serious hit. The...

-Down to Earth Households in southern states are most indebted; 40 per cent agricultural-households take loan from informal sources like money lenders The latest survey report of the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) further confirms India's worsening agrarian crisis. More than half of the agriculture households are in debt, and the worst affected states are southern states like Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, and Tamil Nadu, says the 70th round of NSSO survey. The...

The agrarian crisis is far from over. Amidst news of farmers' suicide reported from parts of Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra, an official document released in December by the National Sample Survey Organisation states that nearly 52% of India's agricultural households were indebted during July, 2012 - June, 2013. The average amount of outstanding loan per agricultural household in India was Rs. 47000 (see link below). Based on a survey of...

-The Hindu The findings from the latest International Labour Organisation report on real wages point to a mix of proactive initiatives and policy paralysis in different contexts. The study notes that continuing deceleration in the growth of global real wages and discriminatory pay gaps based on gender and nationality could sharpen household income inequalities. A most striking finding is that labour productivity growth outstripped increases in real wage between 1999 and...