-The Hindu   Development is as much a process of providing services as of removing obstacles and giving freedom from all sorts of discrimination. In what is perhaps one of India's most communal, polarising, divisive and personalised election campaigns, we are told far too often that this election is really about development. Yet, none of the political parties clearly defines development either in their speeches or in their manifestoes. So, what do they...

-The Hindustan Times   Once the remaining two phases of India's seemingly never-ending elections are done and dusted and the results are declared, for whoever it might be that wins and gets to form the government, the first thing on the agenda should be to get down on their knees and pray to the rain gods and wish that the monsoon doesn't disappoint this year - that it comes on time and...

-Live Mint To alleviate poverty and extend true food security to its people India must bring efficiency to public expenditures In the Indian economy, where almost half of the average household's expenditures goes toward food and half the labour force is engaged in agriculture, one cannot simply wish away the centrality of agriculture just because its contribution to gross domestic product (GDP) hovers around a comparatively low 14%. India's agriculture is responsible...

-The Business Standard   Of the 46 projects, some have been scaled up after completion of pilot projects Chennai: The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard) has supported 46 innovative projects, through its Nabard-SDC Rural Innovation Fund (RIF), as on February 2014. The fund was set up jointly with the Swiss Agency for Development and Co-operation (SDC). These projects were sponsored so as to create more jobs in the rural areas...

-The Hindu Business Line   Technology is transforming Indian agriculture and increasing output. This is good news, given that India may need to produce 90 million tonnes of foodgrain annually by 2030 to feed its growing population, says Vishwanath Kulkarni Jitendra, a prosperous farmer from Machrauli in Haryana, had barely hired a combine to harvest wheat on his 10-acre plot when clouds started building up. The weather office had predicted rains over the...