KEY TRENDS   • Oxfam India's 2023 India Supplement report on poverty and inequality in India reveals that the gap between the rich and the poor is widening. Following the pandemic in 2019, the bottom 50 per cent of the population have continued to see their wealth chipped away. By 2020, their income share was estimated to have fallen to only 13 per cent of the national income and have less than 3...

-Newsclick.in The Education Department has attributed the delay in payment to the non-release of the funds by the state Finance Department. Lucknow: Government schools in Uttar Pradesh have reportedly not received any money for mid-day meals for the last three months, preventing some schools from serving food to children under the scheme. In a few schools, teachers and gram pradhan (village head) have been spending from their own pockets or buying rations...

-The Telegraph PM Modi’s Gabbar Singh Tax is the best example of his modus operandi — talk big, and when it’s time to act, make things worse: Congress Traders and Shopkeepers will hold a nationwide protest next week against a hike in taxes on a range of products, including food grains and household items, and services that kicked in from Monday. “The 5 per cent goods and services tax on a range of...

-Down to Earth Farmers in different states have protested against unavailability of fertilisers Global rise in fertiliser prices due to shortage has dealt a severe blow to farmers across India, which is the second-largest importer of fertilisers. Many states have seen cultivators erupting in protest, even as the Centre dismissed news of low availability of fertilisers. Dattaraye P Darekar from Vinchur village in Maharashtra is worried about his soybean and maize crops sown...

-Mongabay.com - Perennial waterlogging in agricultural fields of Charkhi Dadri is making them uncultivable. Farmers are adopting alternate occupations or taking land on lease in other villages to continue farming. - While groundwater scarcity is a problem in many parts of North India, some 319 villages in Haryana have the opposite issue of waterlogging because of high groundwater levels. - Government interventions, saline water draining attempts and subsidies for crop diversification, along with...