-Hindustan Times It is almost a year since the launch of the Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY), or the Skill India mission, with the aim of giving as many as 2.4 million young Indians industry-relevant training with an elaborate certification scheme. One year is too short a time to assess true progress in a bureaucracy-driven system of the kind India has, but, given the NDA’s earnestness to create jobs by...

-Hindustan Times A week after the ministry of environment and forests (MoEF) put out a document on its website titled ‘National Forest policy, 2016 (Draft): Empowered Communities, Healthy Ecosystems, Happy Nation’, a senior ministry official last week said the document is only a “study” done by Indian Institute of Forest Management (IIFM), Bhopal, and not a draft policy. The preface to the document, however, said it had been prepared “based on...

-The Times of India Most of us know exotic new veggies and grains like kale and quinoa are "imported" but even ordinary staples like potato, onion, tomato and chilli came from elsewhere, Reports Subodh Varma. A study of 177 countries by scientists from the International Center of Tropical Agriculture has found that in India, more than a third of all food items derived from plants -grains, vegetables, fruits, spices, oils, sugar etc....

-The Hindu Business Line New Delhi: Sowing of kharif crops slowed down further in the third week of June, despite considerable progress in monsoon rains, with the total area sown falling by almost 24 per cent to 124.94 lakh hectares (lh) compared with 164.10 lh at this time last year. States have reported that till June 24, rice has been sown/transplanted on 19.86 lh (21.86 lh), pulses on 9.66 lh (12.19 lh)...

-Livemint.com In the last decade, the rural constituent has emerged an important factor for overall private final consumption, which forms more than half (55-60% range) of India’s demand side GDP An above-average monsoon is commonly expected to be a key demand driver in 2016-17. Gross domestic product (GDP) forecasts for the year incorporate a revival in rural consumption—a segment that suffered severe setback from two successive years of adverse rainfall. In...