-The Economic Times NEW DELHI: The monsoon's late revival has increased sowing of crops by 35% in the past week, but worries about agriculture persist as reservoir levels are low, while planting is still much lower than last year, and only slightly better than it was at this time in the drought year of 2009. The situation in water reservoirs was also worrisome as they were filled up to only 26%...
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A year on, no lessons learnt from Bihar mid day meal tragedy -Jyotika Sood
-Down to Earth Civil society calls for pesticide-free, organic food under government programmes for children while Bihar focuses on building new kitchens in government schools A year after 23 school children in Bihar's Saran district died of insecticide poisoning after consuming food served under Mid Day Meal (MDM) Scheme, government agencies seem to have forgotten the serious concern over handling and banning of hazardous chemicals that the tragedy raised. The children of Dharmasati-Gandaman...
More »“Solar-powered pumping system will brighten prospects of farming’’ -AV Ragunathan
-The Hindu 80 per cent subsidy will be granted for farmers: Villupuram Collector Villupuram (Tamil Nadu): Villupuram farmers are being encouraged to put up solar-powered pumping system to maximise farm production and to economise usage of water, according to V. Sampath, District Collector. Those farmers who would opt for such a system, being promoted under the National Agricultural Development Programme (NADP), would be eligible to get 80 per cent subsidy, to the extent...
More »Green is politics: India has to study climate change on its own -Jairam Ramesh
-The Hindustan Times ‘Himalayan Glaciers will disappear by 2035'. This was one the very alarming conclusions of the Nobel Prize-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) that was brought to my attention when I took over as minister for environment and forests in May 2009. Could this really be true, I wondered. I then decided to convene a series of meetings with experts from different institutions across the country. And what...
More »Govt likely to bring about sea change in land bill -Brajesh Kumar
-The Hindustan Times The rural development ministry would be asking the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) to relax norms to acquire land for projects by scrapping mandatory consent provision for public private partnership (PPP) projects and reducing it to 50% from the existing 80% for private acquisition. The slew of changes in the land acquisition law 2013 for Prime Minister Narendra Modi's approval means that consent of half of the affected families would...
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