The World Food and Agriculture – Statistical Yearbook 2022, released in December 2022, provides its readers a plethora of useful statistics and data across the countries pertaining to agriculture and food security. The yearbook by Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) primarily covers four themes -- Economic Dimensions of Agriculture; Production, Trade and Prices of Commodities; Food Security and Nutrition; and Sustainability and Environmental Aspects of Agriculture.  While going through the report,...

-The Telegraph At present, India has 195 million households with ration cards (nearly 794 million people), lower than the beneficiaries we intended to target in 2013 INOrdinate delays in carrying out the census exercise are depriving millions of Indians who rely on rations for their subsistence. The exclusion of the poorest from the public distribution system in the pre and post-pandemic years was first flagged by the economists, Jean Drèze and Reetika...

-The Hindu In four States, auditors’ wages delayed as funds from Centre are yet to arrive The Union Rural Development Ministry (MoRD) has told States that failure to carry out social audit of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) will invite action, including withholding of funds. However, it is the Centre that bears the administrative cost of these Social Audit Units, and INOrdinate delay in the release of funds...

-The Hindu Business Line The Centre should build on the success of PMJDY to promote other financial products for the lower sections of society As the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) completes its eighth year, it is becoming increasingly clear that this is a rare State-initiated welfare scheme that has not just met but exceeded its initial promise. That the scheme has made a material difference to financial inclusion is evident...

-TheWire.in In the last three years, the Indian economy has been in crisis even if its organized sector has been doing well. Three years of Narendra Modi’s second stint as Prime Minister was celebrated by the Bharatiya Janata Party earlier this month. The self-congratulatory campaign, however, was spoiled quickly by a succession of events, all of which point to what has gone wrong during his tenure. First came the news that the economy...