-Hindustan Times The agriculture ministry has started a new programme to focus on millets or coarse cereal production, mostly grown by small and poor farmers New Delhi: The Narendra Modi government has decided to include millets in the public distribution system for which it is procuring these grains at federally fixed minimum support prices, agriculture minister Radha Mohan Singh said. The agriculture ministry has started a new programme to focus on millets or...

-The Hindu Why measuring inequality is not the same as measuring changes in the level of poverty in India In recent years, there has been a lot of discussion on increasing inequality within several countries of the world, including India, particularly after the publication of Thomas Piketty’s book on inequality. It is true that rising inequality has adverse economic and social consequences. The Gini coefficient or other measures of inequality are being...

-Livemint.com The government expenditure on MGNREGS in 2017-18 was nearly Rs. 25,000 crore more than what was spent in 2013-14 New Delhi: The national rural employment guarantee scheme saw a record expenditure of Rs63,887 crore in 2017-18, the highest since it was launched 12 years ago, showed data provided by the government on Monday. However, high demand for work from rural households in a normal monsoon year (2017) also suggests acute rural distress,...

-OrissaPost.com Bhubaneswar: The state government lost its direction on execution of the biggest rural employment generation scheme–Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA). This was indicated in a Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) report on local bodies for the year ended March 2017. Briefing media about the findings of the audit report, Accountant General of Orissa Madhumita Basu said, “The per annum average income of the households (HHs) in...

-The Hindu Farm distress is increasingly being triggered by excess output and falling prices, but policy fixes are yet to address this Why are Indian farmers perpetually in revolt? The question has been raised by many after the recent farmers’ march to Mumbai and simmering rebellions across the States in recent years. No doubt, agriculture is one segment of the economy on which vote-conscious governments haven’t skimped on outlays. Over the years, Central...