-Livemint.com The ministry for water resources, river development and Ganga rejuvenation has also placed a draft of the national groundwater management improvement programme New Delhi: The Centre has placed two draft bills for water conservation in the public domain for feedback as the country battles a water crisis. The government has also released a draft of a programme to improve groundwater management in the country. Comments have been invited on the two...

-Business Standard The first two years of the Narendra Modi government were marked by big announcements that will take their time to materialise. The one sector that is unfazed by slogans is agriculture. The sector is crippled by back-to-back droughts coupled with a record fall in farm prices. A slump in global markets meant that agriculture exports, which could provide farmers alternative revenue, dried up. Agriculture and processed food exports from India...

-The Financial Express Dismantling cane economy will not be painless, shift crop to drip irrigation Opinion-makers, from agricultural economists and academics to environmentalists, have blamed sugarcane for aggravating the water shortage in Marathwada. But the view is contested. ‘I reject the hypothesis,’ says Venkat Mayande, during a conversation in Pune. Mayande was vice-chancellor of Akola’s Panjabrao Deshmukh Agricultural University till 2012. How can 2.1 lakh hectare (ha) of cane cause a shortage of...

-DNA To add value to the ailing farming sector in Maharashtra, which is reeling under successive droughts, agrarian distress and a negative growth rate, the state government is working on an agro-industrial policy. "We are working on an agro-industrial policy. It will look at granting incentives to agro-industries like food processing units, which will help create value chains for farmers and set up facilities like cold storages. The policy will also grant...

-The Hindu Business Line Bidding process apace to select insurance firms for Fasal Bima Yojana New Delhi: The Centre’s flagship crop insurance scheme, Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana, is likely to be rolled out in several parts of the country by next month as the bidding process for selecting insurance companies is over in at least ten States and a Union Territory and many others are in the midst of it. All top...