-PTI PATNA: Taking into account deficient rainfall this year, Bihar government on Wednesday declared 33 out of the 38 districts of state as drought-hit. The decision was taken at a cabinet meeting presided over by chief minister Nitish Kumar. Principal secretary (Cabinet Coordination and Secretariat) Brajesh Mehrotra and the principal secretary ( Disaster Management Department) Vyasji said the decision was taken because of deficient rainfall in these districts at 20 per cent below...

-The Indian Express In Gujarat, growth relies on indebtedness. And relegates development. The Gujarat pattern of development has often been arraigned from the left because of its social deficits. Indeed, the state's social indicators do not match its economic performance. With 23 per cent of its citizens living below the poverty line in 2010, Gujarat does better than the Indian average - 29.8 per cent - but it reduced this proportion by...

-The Hindu Dip in Congress' vote share from SCs, STs, Muslims - its traditional support base Cities are driving the anti-UPA sentiment, while marginalised communities - the Congress' traditional base - are more satisfied than dissatisfied with UPA-II's performance. These findings emerge from a CNN IBN-The Hindu-election tracker poll of 19,062 demographically representative respondents. Just 38 per cent of respondents expressed satisfaction with UPA-II's performance (with 22 per cent undecided), down from 49...

-Down to Earth Agricultural growth rate figures in the state appear to be unrealistic if one considers farm suicides and increase in number of landless farm labourers I am in a dilemma over the veracity of the data available on the state of agriculture in Madhya Pradesh. Perhaps, the reader could help me in this effort. Chances are he or she could be as befuddled as I am on the matter. In...

-Frontline Professor Sukhpal Singh, a faculty member of the Centre for Management of Agriculture at the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, has been researching and documenting the process of contract farming and food supply chains in India for more than a decade. He is of the view that the small farmer is being excluded in the method currently in place, which defeats the very purpose of improving Indian agriculture. Sukhpal Singh,...