-DNA Country to import 50 lakh MT pulses from Myanmar, Australia, Tanzania India's 'low pulse' is going to pump up the economies of three countries – Myanmar, Australia and Tanzania. India needs to urgently import 50 lakh metric tonnes (MT) of pulses worth over Rs 2,600 crore to meet the domestic demand of 2.10 lakh MT. "There is no supply. Farmers had stopped cultivating pulses for want of incentives. Besides, to cultivate pulses,...

-The Times of India BATHINDA: "It was just like the Japanese air strike in the film, Pearl Harbour," said Naresh Kumar Lehri, a seed and pesticide dealer at Singho village in Punjab's Bathinda district. "They appeared out of nowhere and left a trail of destruction." Lehri was referring to the devastating attack by whitefly, a common pest, on the cotton crop in Punjab's Malwa region this year. It has affected about two-thirds...

-DNA The Modi government’s soil-testing scheme doesn’t address the causes of agrarian distress In February this year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched an ambitious Rs568 crore Soil Health Card (SHC) scheme. The objective of the three-year scheme is to issue soil health cards to 14 crore farmers spread across India. The cards will be given out after determining the quality of soil, identifying its macro- and micronutrients as well as its...

-The Hindu The idea of attacking poverty by increasing mobile connectivity in a country that ranks 55 in the Global Hunger Index is just fantasy Interviewer: What would you regard as the most outstanding and significant event of the last decade? Siddhartha: The… war in Vietnam, sir. Interviewer: More significant than landing on the moon? Siddhartha: I think so, sir. — “Pratidwandi” (The Adversary), 1970 The most fundamental debate for our youth is the choice between Android,...

-The Hindu YADGIR (Karnataka): It looks like Narasappa Kotriki has pulled a rabbit out of his hat. The marginal farmer from Tipadampalli village in Yadgir district, who suffered crop loss, has found rearing rabbits quite profitable. When he fell into bad times, he purchased 100 rabbits (70 male and 30 female) with Rs 1.2 lakh. He spent another Rs. 2.8 lakh for other infrastructure — cages for the rabbits and a shed...