President Barack Obama on Monday announced a U.S.-Indian partnership to promote food security in Africa, harnessing technology to battle starvation in a part of the world where China has boosted its presence. "We are going to share Indian expertise with farmers in Africa," Obama said in a speech to India's parliament. The project will link U.S., Indian and African Universities to spread knowledge and boost innovation, while deploying technology to improve drought-resistant...

The forthcoming India visit of the US President, Mr Barack Obama, accompanied by Mr Thomas J. Vilsack, secretary of agriculture, and Dr Rajiv Raj Shah, administrator, United States Agency for International Development (USAID), is significant in the context of strengthening the Indo-US partnership in the field of agriculture production and sustainable food security. Several related issues will be discussed in Mumbai on November 6 and November 7 where an agriculture...

More hands join to support the cause of `Kisan Swaraj' and `safe food for all, sans Bt'. Adding momentum to this cause, the Kisan Swaraj Yatra reached Bangalore on Sunday. At a public meeting in the Institute of Agricultural technologists (IAT), Kodihalli Chandrasekhar, president, Karnataka Rajya Raithara Sangha (KRRS) assured that over 5,000 farmers from the state will join the yatra when it ends at Raj Ghat, in New Delhi, on...

In a few days from now, women could account for 52 per cent of all local bodies. They are tailors, farmers, accountants, legal clerks, homemakers, vendors and activists. There are M.Com degree holders alongside poor women from deprived backgrounds. Together, they make up the most highly educated women candidates fighting local body elections anywhere in the country. There are nearly 40,000 of them contesting the polls across more than 1,200...

The government is keen on forging a partnership with IIMs, IITs and other select institutes for augmenting professional resource support to its rural development programmes like NREGA. As part of efforts to evolve such a framework, the Ministry of Rural Development has invited representatives from various professional institutes including IIMs and IITs to participate in a workshop organised by it in Udaipur district of Rajasthan tomorrow, a ministry official said. Union Minister...