Why we are doing this story     * Tribal lands are under pressure across India. In Orissa, they have been holding out against big corporates like Vedanta and Posco. *** From afar, the fumes rising from factory chimneys in Gujarat’s industrial belt make them seem like skyscrapers on fire. It’s a grey rust-and-chemicals stretch that they call, without irony, the Golden Corridor. It extends all the way from the north of Ahmedabad, through...

India registered a good 8.5 percent GDP growth in 2010-11 staving off the global impact of recession mainly due to the major recovery in the agriculture sector. The recorded foodgrain production in 2010-11 was the outcome of the initiatives of the state governments, the union government has now acknowledged. It was an innovation's galore to say the least if one takes into consideration the efforts of the 10 states that went...

CPM Politburo member and Kerala Home Minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan has assets worth Rs 76.65 lakh, according to the affidavit filed by him on Thursday as part of his election nomination papers for the April 13 assembly polls in the state. Balakrishnan, who filed his nomination from Thalassery assembly constituency in Kannur district, declared that he has Rs 36.20 lakh worth assets and his wife Rs 40.45 lakh. He said that he has...

Take a host of initiatives to ramp up presence in rural markets. With increased focus on directing funds towards agriculture, banks are confident of meeting their farm sector lending targets this financial year. “We had 60 rural branches last year and will take it to 125 by next month. This will give a major fillip to the agri lending business,” said S Chakrabarthy, deputy managing director, Axis Bank. According to the Trend and...

These days, Jhum cultivation also known as ‘slash and burn method of cultivation’, ‘shifting cultivation’ etc has been under continuous scanner for its productivity and ecological viability. This form of cultivation is followed widely in almost all the North Eastern States including the hill areas of Manipur. There are those who consider jhum cultivation as unproductive and ecologically disastrous so that people (understood as tribal people of the hill areas)...