The Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC), the pioneer of supercomputing in the country, is now assisting the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) to establish a national agricultural bioinformatics grid. The initiative, the first of its kind in the country, will help scientists enhance agricultural productivity and address problems of food security. Under the project, a three-day training-cum-workshop on ‘parallel and high performance computing’ began at C-DAC on Monday, with...

There are many critics and sceptics with respect to the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, which came into being because of political pressure that managed to overcome quite strenuous opposition from some of the most influential policy making circles. It is likely that much of this criticism is not really because of the declared reasons, like fiscal costs (which are thus far very little) and potential leakage. Rather,...

Climate change is a serious global issue of great concern to different countries. So said Dr Manjit Singh Kang, PAU vice-chancellor, on the opening day of a three-day international conference on 'Preparing Agriculture for Climate Change' at Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) on Sunday. 'Green revolution is a path-breaking movement and Punjab has spearheaded it for over four decades,' said Punjab Agricultural Marketing Board chairman Ajmer Singh Lakhowal, the chief guest. Kang, who...

These days, Jhum cultivation also known as ‘slash and burn method of cultivation’, ‘shifting cultivation’ etc has been under continuous scanner for its productivity and ecological viability. This form of cultivation is followed widely in almost all the North Eastern States including the hill areas of Manipur. There are those who consider jhum cultivation as unproductive and ecologically disastrous so that people (understood as tribal people of the hill areas)...

No major investment in dam projects before land acquisition, relief and rehabilitation sorted out Project should be cleared only after distribution network is provided For years, it has been felt that engineers of the Irrigation and Water Resources Departments are far removed from human considerations while planning and executing a project. This is why concerns at displacement and rehabilitation of project-affected people and farmers for whom the water is meant are not...