-The Hindustan Times Jaipur: Keeping in view the possibility of poor monsoon this year, the state agriculture department has submitted a contingency crop plan - Kharif 2014 -to the disaster and Relief department. In the plan, the agriculture department has suggested that through proper technical guidance to farmers loss in agricultural production could be curbed in case of weak or non-uniform monsoon in the state. The department has given various suggestions including...

-The Times of India   Last month's general election brought the role of media under the spotlight. Media faced severe criticism from political parties, intellectuals and industry insiders for allegedly being partisan during elections. A large section of mainstream media has been castigated as "paid media" by social media enthusiasts. In this context, however, a great deal of work already exists in the political economy literature analyzing the real effects of having a...

-The Hindu   Salt workers toil under inhuman conditions to create the ingredient that converts a tasteless lump of calories into consumable tasty food Salt has played an iconic role in our freedom struggle, symbolised by the great salt satyagraha of 1933, led by Mahatma Gandhi at Dandi. Every child in India knows about this but how many know that a similar satyagraha was led in the Madras Presidency (now Tamil Nadu) by...

-The Telegraph Lucknow: Akhilesh Yadav has wrapped up his free laptop scheme and instead pledged funds for building toilets and upgrading the police force in the state budget unveiled today. "We have kept our poll promise and distributed laptops in the first phase of our programme. The stress in this budget is infrastructure and rural development," said the Uttar Pradesh chief minister, under pressure after his party slipped from 21 seats in...

-The Hindu   VISAKHAPATNAM (Andhra Pradesh): A proposal is being made to help small and marginal farmers through the NREGS, Minister for Panchayati Raj Ch. Ayyanna Patrudu said here on Monday. A Relief of Rs. 6,000 could be brought to a farmer by including agriculture operations like ploughing and sowing under NREGS and a proposal was being sent to the Government, Mr. Patrudu said while talking to reporters after reviewing the agriculture scene...