Rotting grain violate the sanctity of food and the people's right to it, Navdanya, an NGO, said here on Tuesday. Criticising Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's statement that distribution of free grain would be anti-farmer, the NGO said that, on the contrary, farmers who were ready to harvest their kharif crop would be hurt if the government did not procure enough because it lacked adequate storage facilities. “If the government is unable to...

Congress President Sonia Gandhi said on Thursday that land acquisition should not result in loss of fertile land. "We must protect environment to ensure sustainable development. In whatever we do, we should not forget forest and environment," Gandhi said, adding, "Farmers should be provided adequate compensation." Sonia Gandhi's remarks come a day after The Supreme court dismissed an appeal by a farmer body and upheld the Uttar Pradesh government's land acquisition...

Sitting on his father’s shoulders, two-year-old Rahul Kumar giggles and tugs on a lock of his father’s hair. A happy, healthy-looking boy, Rahul has already seen much of India. Born in a small village in northern Bihar, he has spent roughly half of his short life in Punjab, where his parents work as seasonal farm labourers. He has spent a few months in his parents’ village. The rest has been spent...

The number of Internet users in rural India will swell to 5.4 million in 2010, translating into a 30 per cent growth, primarily driven by farmers going online to check their e-mail. The number of active Internet users in rural India will swell to 5.4 million in 2010, a growth of 30 per cent from 3.3 million in 2008, according to a research study jointly conducted by the Internet and Mobile...

The number of internet users in rural India is forecast to rise 30 percent to 5.4 mn in 2010, according to a joint study conducted by the Internet & Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) and market research firm IMRB. E-mail is the dominant purpose of internet access in rural India, the organisations said, adding that about 85 percent of the total rural users in 2009 accessed the internet for e-mails....