-The Hindu Meals low on calories and proteins, says Review Mission Hyderabad: Food quantities served under Mid-day Meals scheme in the State's schools are way below the norms prescribed, going by the findings of the Fifth Joint Review Mission to Andhra Pradesh. According to the Mission's report after its visit to Hyderabad and Medak between June 24 and July 3, the gap between the norms and actuals is more in the case of...

-CivilSocietyOnline.com Kozhikode: Dubai's agriculture minister recently chartered a flight to Kozhikode and, accompanied by a horticulture consultant, headed to the Agriculture Research Station (ARS) at Anakkayam nearby. There the minister, Abdulla Jassim Abdulla M Almarzooqi, placed orders for fruits, spices and ornamental plants. But on his mind was something bigger. He offered free visas and air tickets to the 100 members of the research station's agricultural army, which rather grandly goes...

-IndiaResists.com The ongoing debate between two stalwart economists, Amartya Sen and Jagdish Bhagwati, must be joined by those who understand contemporary realities and challenges in terms altogether different from those of mainstream economists. In a recent (July 27) article in Times of India, Bhagwati's co-author Arvind Panagariya characterizes the differences between the two in the following terms. Sen favours education and health measures as being the first steps to tackle poverty...

-The Hindu Groundwater meets three quarters of the State's farming needs The Punjab State Farmers Commission recently published a draft new agriculture policy for the State that envisages substantial crop diversification from paddy and wheat staples that the State has been growing since the sixties. The draft policy, currently being debated in agriculture circles, is the first serious road map to steer Punjab's agriculture towards a new dynamic, necessitated by a sharp...

-The Telegraph Tezpur (Assam): Rains in neighbouring Arunachal Pradesh and a rise in the water level of Solengi river has inundated at least 20 villages in Assam's Sonitpur district today. An embankment of the Solengi river at Borghuli village was breached, affecting the neighbouring villages. Road communication between Gohpur and Itanagar, the capital of Arunachal Pradesh, was also hit due to floodwaters. Ramen Bora, a resident of Kokila village, said the breach near...