-The Times of India NEW DELHI: The Centre on Monday expanded the scope of its game-changer Ujjwala free LPG connection scheme to all poor households instead of BPL (below poverty line) families identified by the 2011 socio-economic Caste census and a set of other categories. Oil minister Dharmendra Pradhan said the step approved by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs will lift LPG penetration to 100% households from 90% at present. He...

-Hindustan Times Data analysis of assembly elections results shows that Rajputs increased dominance in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, Brahmins lost share; OBCs take up large chunk of BJP, Cong MLAs. Congress victories over the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the key Hindi belt states of Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan are the biggest political upset since the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. A Caste-wise breakup of newly elected MLAs shows that the change in...

Just a few days ahead of the Kisan Mukti March in Delhi NCR, the provisional results of the Agriculture Census 2015-16 became available in the public domain. The report, among other things, highlights the long-term problems affecting Indian agriculture including fragmentation of land holdings (particularly the marginal and small ones) and shrinking average size of farm land. The provisional results of the latest Agriculture Census reveal that at the national level...

-The Indian Express Assembly election results show that deceiving farmers comes with a price Frustration on the farms has reached an inflexion point. All of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s promises could actually go against him. To gauge if the farmers’ anger can become a potent political force in 2019, it is important to understand the “farmer’s identity”. Identities rarely exist in neat silos, and that is true of the farmer as...

-The Hindu With farm distress becoming a major electoral issue in the run-up to the 2019 Lok Sabha election, Vikas Pathak visits two pockets of rural India, Mandsaur in Madhya Pradesh and Jodhpur district in Rajasthan, and finds that the political instincts of the rural voter are not necessarily rooted in agriculture. A few farmers sit huddled near a statue of Sardar Patel at Balaguda village in Mandsaur, Madhya Pradesh pouring out...