Total credit potential estimated at over Rs 65,000 croreThe agriculture and allied sectors in Uttar Pradesh are in for a major boost during the period 2011-12 with the total credit potential in the farm and non-farm segments pegged at Rs 65,440 crore for the next financial year.This would be a jump of more than 20 per cent over state credit target estimated for the current financial year at Rs 54,000...

Pawan Goenka noticed something unusual last year—tractor sales were climbing even though India had its worst monsoon in more than three decades and farm output dropped 2.8% in the three months to December last fiscal. The umbilical cord that tied rainfall patterns and tractor sales seemed to have been ruptured. The president of auto and tractor maker Mahindra and Mahindra Ltd offers an interesting explanation to this puzzle: growing labour shortages...

There is clearly a direct trade-off between exploitation of natural resources and conservation of environment and human habitat . In the past, due to lower environment consciousness, the trade-off was always decided in favour of exploitation. This is deplorable. Yet, environmental fundamentalism can also exact a high cost that will prevent a number of people to remain without access to basic necessities of life. This apparently intractable trade-off has to be resolved....

The much-awaited Bill on sexual harassment at workplaces gets the Cabinet nod for presentation in Parliament. ON November 4, the Union Cabinet gave the go-ahead for the enactment of a law on protection of women from sexual harassment at the workplace. Titled Protection of Women against Sexual Harassment at Workplace Bill, 2010, the draft law is basically a new avatar of the ones prepared in 2004. This development has been...

A young farmer from Nashik committed suicide after failing to bear the burden of damage to crops due to unseasonal rains. Dyneshwar Bhikaji Adake, 32, a resident of Nanegaon, hung himself in the early hours of Monday. Villagers said Adake had developed four acres of land as a vineyard, which was damaged due to unseasonal rains last fortnight. With mounting debts, he hung himself from a grill after midnight. Police have...