-TheWire.in This year’s Union Budget markets itself as a pro-poor and pro-farmer budget. To take a closer and harder look at this, The Wire spoke to Ashok Gulati, chair professor for agriculture at ICRIER. Gulati tells The Wire why this budget is insignificant for reducing farmers’ distress, in spite of all the talk. Edited excerpts from the interview follow: * How much is the actual increase in the total allocation to agriculture...

-The Hindu Medicines remain overpriced and unaffordable in India. In a country mired in poverty, medical debt remains the second biggest factor for keeping millions in poverty. The international pharmaceutical industry has found its cash cow in India’s beleaguered consumers. With a minimum wage of Rs.250/day for a government worker, a basic wage worker afflicted with a chronic disease like multi-drug-resistant tuberculosis faces penury. His treatment, with drug combinations, which works out...

-The Hindu SJM leader says the nation is capable of growing on its own strength and capital With the Swadesh Jagran Manch, an RSS-front to espouse the cause of Swadeshi, questioning the NDA government’s relaxing of FDI norms in 15 sectors, the government is witnessing opposition from within Sangh Parivar circles to its bid to attract investment. Meanwhile, the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS) — the Sangh’s arm active among workers — has written...

Although MGNREGA has been looked upon with suspicion by the Government, industry as well as the landed farming class for various reasons including inefficiency, leakages, corruption, rise in rural wages, cost escalation etc., a new report reveals that the programme reduced poverty among its participants between 2004-05 and 2011-12 by providing employment. The report entitled Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act: A Catalyst for Rural Transformation has estimated that...

-The Indian Express The SECC has identified 14 parameters of exclusion. Fulfilling even one of them would result in a household being treated as non-deprived. Adivasis or Scheduled Tribes are the most deprived among rural households in India, despite their suffering much lower levels of landlessness and dependence on manual casual labour compared to the Dalits or Scheduled Castes. According to the results of the Socio Economic and Caste Census 2011, nearly...