Farm technologies are not reaching farmers on the ground, Prime Minister manmohan singh observed here on Monday and said “it represents the failure of the system.” He was speaking at the Golden Jubilee convocation of the Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI) here. The annual farm growth rate was expected to be 3.5 per cent in the 12th Plan period ending this year, he said, but there was concern over the gap between...

-PTI The Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council today projected 3 per cent growth for the farm sector in 2011-12 buoyed by record grains output, strong growth in horticulture and animal husbandry sectors. Last year, the agriculture sector had grown by 7 per cent. "The Council expects that in combination with the strong trend growth in horticulture and in the animal husbandry sectors, the overall farm sector GDP growth for 2011-12 will average 3...

In climate change talks, the countries need to think equity differently Just before the BASIC ministerial meeting on climate change in Delhi this week, Prime Minister manmohan singh stressed on “equity” in climate change talks and said economic growth should not harm the environment. Although the BASIC countries — Brazil, South Africa, India and China — are growing, making them a powerful voice in global economy, they still view themselves as...

A committee on social security, set up at the 44th Indian Labour Conference (ILC) that concluded its session here on Wednesday, has suggested that maternity leave to women employees, now provided under the Maternity Benefit Act, be raised to 24 weeks from the present 12 weeks. This has come even as Prime Minister manmohan singh, while speaking at the conference on Tuesday, stressed the need to understand the constraints women staff...

-PTI   Reflecting the utmost priority to address farm sector woes, a first-of-its-kind workshop was held on Wednesday at the initiative of President Pratibha Patil where Prime Minister manmohan singh pitched for raising agriculture output to provide food security to citizens.  At the workshop attended by eight Union ministers, 20 governors, five chief ministers and 37 vice chancellors of agricultural universities, Patil underlined the need for "out-of-the-box" solutions to enhance productivity in rainfed...