-PTI   Patna: Union Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh on Saturday said the central government was working on a new crop insurance scheme to help farmers tackle flood, drought and plant diseases in a better manner. He said it will be launched soon across the country, as the existing scheme has not proved to be beneficial to the farmers. Details will be unveiled during the Budget session of the Parliament, he added. Singh also...

-IANS   PATNA: The central government is planning to turn India's eastern states into an organic farming-hub, Union agriculture minister Radha Mohan Singh said here on Monday. "Our priority is to develop Bihar, Odisha, West Bengal and eastern Uttar Pradesh into an organic farming hub for development of the region and to provide opportunity to millions of farmers to earn more," Singh told media persons. Singh, who hails from Bihar, said organic farming...

-Down to Earth   Ministry of panchayati raj plans to develop model panchayats in different states through integrated development President Pranab Mukherjee's address to parliamentarians on Monday and the brain-storming sessions carried out by the new prime minister, Narendra Modi, with officials of different ministries indicate changes in the way rural development schemes will be implemented in the country. Each department in the rural development ministry has organised workshops with states to evolve the...

-The Hindustan Times   The national rural employment guarantee in a new format will have more funds for asset creation, penalty for late disbursal of funds by the Centre and removing the five-km restriction for seeking work. Working on inputs from state governments, the Centre would be revamping the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGA) with an aim to create productive assets. Government officials said that some of the likely changes...

-The Business Standard     They were unimpressed by the UPA's misguided socialism, but they worry about the new regime's free-market orientation too Consider this paradox. The Congress Party-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) was decimated in the elections in spite of several years of good monsoon and rising agricultural production. Consider another paradox. This was the regime that implemented policies that were presumed to be pro-farmer: the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, the...