Hard To Ignore...     * Farmers of East Godavari and West Godavari districts in Andhra Pradesh have declared a crop holiday this kharif season     * No paddy will be sown across 1.5 lakh acres in the two districts     * Farmers are demanding better minimum support price and subsidies on inputs     * They say the rising Cost of inputs causes farmers to lose Rs 10,000-15,000 per acre     * If the farmers stick...

-The Economic Times   Concern over protecting the 'holy cow' status to the job guarantee programme, MGNREGA, appears to be overshadowing genuine worries in the government over increasing shortage of unskilled farm labour. Shooting down a suggestion from Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar that the programme may be suspended during the peak farming season, Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh has said that there should not be any dilution in the programme. In an...

The bidirectional relationship between economic development and health justifies greater investment in the health sector. The National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) has been described as one of the largest and most ambitious programmes to revive health care in the world and has many achievements to its credit. It seeks to provide universal access to health care, which is affordable, equitable, and of good quality. It has increased health finance, improved infrastructure...

The past couple of months have seen a renewed attack on the National Advisory Council (NAC). The NAC has been decried as an unconstitutional, undemocratic, “super-cabinet” where unaccountable “jholawalas” hatch harebrained schemes guaranteed to run the government aground. Another line of criticism has focused on the process of the formation of the NAC, its space within the Indian Constitution, and its capacity to influence policy. The two criticisms merge with...

-MSN   The Rural Development Ministry has turned down a request from the Agriculture ministry to suspend MGNREGA projects during peak farming seasons because of labour shortage. Agriculture Secretary P K Basu had written to the Rural Development Ministry to this effect recently. He had sought amendment in the job guarantee scheme so that agriculture is not effected particularly during sowing and harvesting period, sources in the Rural Development Ministry said. The letter had...