-Livemint.com India’s agricultural growth rate has hovered around 2-3% annually, when in fact it should be at least 5% India’s agriculture became moribund decades ago, and shows no sign of uplift for the long haul. Indeed, the rain gods have played havoc with Indian farmers. But not just the gods, Indian states have done precious little to tackle the problem head-on. The government’s solution is to give financial sops to farmers...

-The Hindu Business Line Government surveys on out-of-school children are gross underestimations. The Census numbers, however, are a shocker Census 2011 showed that about 32 million children aged between 6 and 13 years have never attended any educational institution, even though government estimates of out-of-school children show substantially lower numbers. Given that out-of-school numbers consist of both children who dropped out and those who never attended school, it raises some questions over...

The low rate of inflation of 3.88 percent in Consumer Food Price Index during September, 2015 actually hides the high prices at which various pulses (dal) are available in kirana / retail shops across India. In terms of Consumer Price Index (combined), monthly rate of inflation in pulses and products during September 2015 (over September last year) stood at 29.76 percent as compared to the overall monthly retail inflation of...

-Livemint.com A pair of eggs costs less than Rs8 today whereas 100gm of tur dal costs between Rs16 and Rs20 New Delhi: The recent spurt in the prices of pulses is causing much heartburn to governments and consumers. But this is not the first time that prices of pulses have shot up; within the foodgrain basket, production and price shocks are fairly regular for pulses but rare for rice or wheat. So, how...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: Children attend schools in larger numbers on days their midday meal menu includes eggs, a central study has found in Bengal and Telangana. The findings of the 7th Joint Review Mission on the midday meal scheme have bolstered the case for the inclusion of eggs - a nutritious and difficult-to-adulterate option - in the programme across the states. In July last year, the Union human resource development ministry had...