-The Hindu   ‘It has become imperative in view of climate change' Bio-fortified varieties of staple food grains, such as Vitamin-A-enriched ‘Golden Rice', or iron-enriched wheat, could improve the nutritional status of the world's poor, P. Pushpangadan, Director General, Amity Institute for Herbal and Biotech Products Development, said here on Thursday. Presenting a paper on the “Recent advances of agricultural biotechnology in the light of climate change” at the 81st annual session of the...

Those who see a direct link between wage inflation and the employment guarantee scheme need to think again Rural wage rates have been rising at quite a fast rate in recent months. Farmers have been complaining about their inability to get cheap labour for their farms. Industry, too, has raised the alarm saying that this is squeezing their margins; higher rural wages mean fewer people are willing to work on construction...

The Manmohan Singh government has decided to create a sub-quota for Muslims within the 27 per cent reservation for Other Backward Castes (OBCs) and an announcement is likely before the Uttar Pradesh elections next summer. Sources said inter-ministerial consultations had been completed and the law ministry was finalising the contours of the proposal to be placed before the Union cabinet in the next few weeks. Indications are that a sub-quota of 6...

-The Business Standard   Almost three months ago, the Union Cabinet cleared the Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill, 2011. For all projects without a public purpose and requiring more than 100 acres of land, the Bill had made mandatory the consent of 80 per cent of the people whose land would have to be acquired. In addition, the compensation for land was pegged at 100 to 300 per cent over the...

The country's main planning body will overhaul of the system of village panchayat in the next Five-Year Plan period to improve its functioning and check siphoning of funds meant for social sector programmes.  Over 250,000 panchayats or village councils in the country collectively handle about Rs 90,000 crore in social sector funds every year, but embezzlement by village representatives often prevents the benefits of welfare schemes from reaching the needy.  To remedy...