-The Business Standard   Learning from the jatropha mistake The tropical shrub jatropha curcas, touted a decade ago as a commercially feasible source of biofuel to alleviate the global energy crisis, seems to have let its proponents down quite comprehensively. Millions of hectares of land in the arid areas of India and in many other Asian and African countries were turned into jatropha plantations in the expectation that the oil derived from its...

-The Times of India Union finance minister Pranab Mukherjee on Wednesday said he would explore the possibility of setting up a committee of CMs of the eastern states for a second green revolution in the region and praised Assam, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal for substantial increase in rice production during the current fiscal. Replying to the debate on 2012-13 Union Budget in Rajya Sabha, Mukherjee said due to substantial increase in...

-The Telegraph Assam has witnessed one abduction almost every two days this year. Despite militancy being on the decline, there has been no let-up in abductions in the state. Assam forest minister Rakibul Hussain today told the Assembly that 56 abduction cases have been registered in the state since January, which works out to 86 days till today. Replying on behalf of chief minister Tarun Gogoi, who holds the home portfolio, Hussain said between...

Ashish Bose is a veteran demographer whose expertise in analysing population data persuaded the former Prime Minister, the late Rajiv Gandhi to make him an advisor on issues ranging from urbanisation to poverty alleviation. He is best known for coining the term Bimaru (shorthand for Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh) for states with the worst socio-economic indicators. An author of 24 books, he is now working on a...

-PTI The poverty level in Sikkim has gone down with 80,000 people now living below poverty line, according to the new official estimates for 2009-2010 released by the Planning Commission. While in 2004-2005, poverty level in Sikkim stood at 30.9 per cent with 1,70,000 people living under BPL, in the wake of the intense poverty alleviation programme initiated by the government, it has been significantly reduced in both urban and rural areas,...