-The Hindu The latest GDP data released by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) raise more questions than they answer. While on the face of it, the projection of 7.6 per cent growth at constant prices for the fiscal year ending March 31 sounds both attainable and impressive, a closer look at the other sets of numbers, including the third-quarter reading, raises some flags. The pace of economic expansion is estimated to...

-Down to Earth Jharkhand taps its dam reservoirs and ponds to boost fish production as well as livelihood AFFLUENCE IS not a word one would normally associate with Jharkhand’s Jamukhadi village, which falls in one of India’s 250 most backward districts. But almost all the houses in the village have TV sets, computers and motorbikes. “There were only a few pucca (brick) houses in our village till 2000 when the state was...

-PTI Chennai: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa on Monday said the “unprecedented” northeast monsoon has killed 470 people and nearly a lakh livestock besides damaging crops in over 3.83 lakh hectares in the State. Detailing the large-scale destruction caused by heavy rains in four phases during October-December 2015, Ms. Jayalalithaa recalled her demand for a central assistance of Rs 25,912.45 crore for the relief and restoration works. Noting that the Central team of...

-The Times of India NAGPUR: A third-generation farmer from a village in the Naxal-affected Gadchiroli district in Maharashtra has found mention in the state revenue minister's address to the legislative council as an example for other farmers to emulate if they want to ward off penury and disaster. Sanjay Gandate, 31, now cultivates pearls in his 900sqm freshwater pond and leads the charge of innovation in the belt that is battling low-agricultural...

-DNA The report said it will ease the exit of those farmers who find farming unattractive or non-viable and economically strengthen those farmers who want to stay and raise the scale of operational holdings. Opening farmland for 'liberalised leasing' through government-run 'Land Banks' can be a 'win-win reform' in the Indian farm sector, stated the latest report of the National Institution for Transforming India (NITI) Aayog taskforce on agricultural development. The report...