-Business Standard Looking at economics behind agricultural households, a survey notes that 68.3% of such households still relied on agriculture as primary source of income Rural distress is a known story but a survey by NSSO has revealed the alarming level of fragmentation in farmland and unavailability of jobs. As many as 69 per cent agricultural households own less than a hectare of farmland each, making farming unviable and forcing migration to...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: The national rural employment scheme is set to allow use of labour-displacing machinery in all activities in a move that, social activists say, would defeat the objective of guaranteed 100 days' work to a rural household. The rural development ministry is set to amend its guidelines under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) to allow use of machinery such as JCBs, rollers, mechanical mixers and...

In a recent Gazette notification, the Government of India has removed the controversial provisions made in the PDS Control Order that was issued in March, 2015. This means that no more there will be a ceiling placed on the number of Antyodaya cards issued by any state.   The earlier order, which was issued by the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution on 20 March, 2015, says that "when...

-Hindustan Times India, the father of the nation famously said, lives in its villages, or, as many call it, Bharat. There is no doubt that a great shift is underway: As 600 million move out of rural areas over the next 35 years, India will need about 500 new cities. But unless Bharat offers a fraction of the hope that ushered in Narendra Modi’s era, the ongoing urban transformation of India...

-Outlook Recent studies point to two areas where NREGS has had an impact — rural education and Naxalite conflict. "Economics is haunted by more fallacies than any other study known to man."  This rather depressing assessment of the field is the opening sentence of Henry Hazlitt's classic primer, Economics in one lesson. In Hazlitt's view, most economists only measure the immediate impact of their policies. A good economist, Hazlitt contended, looks not merely...