-PTI Ahmedabad: Gujarat government today started implementation of National Food Security Act (NFSA), state cabinet minister Bhupendrasinh Chudasama said. The scheme, however, will be officially launched on April 6 by Chief Minister Ananiben Patel, Chudasama, the Gujarat Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer affairs minister, said. "Under the scheme, we will cover around 3.40 crore eligible citizens who will be given food grains at subsidised rates through our Public Distribution System (PDS) shops. The...

-The Hindu Business Line A long-range forecast is not authoritative, but sets the mood for farmers, industry New Delhi: After two consecutive years of drought, the monsoon this year promises to be above normal, going by an early forecast. A long-range weather forecast by climate management company Weather Risk Management Services indicates that the monsoon this year may end up 5 to 10 per cent above normal — with well-distributed rainfall over the...

-The Hindu Business Line BusinessLine goes to villages, including those visited in 2014, to understand the progress of the ambitious National Optical Fibre Network. Unused infrastructure and low awareness tell a story of missed links In one corner of the Ramnagar village panchayat office, in Panisagar block of Tripura, is a defunct four-year-old computer. The machine, connected with a 10 mbps broadband line was supposed to bring digital services to this remote...

-The Indian Express Because this time, it’s only rural producers, not urban consumers, who are feeling the heat This time’s drought has been a most unusual one. Even with three consecutive bad crops (kharif 2014, rabi 2015, and kharif 2015) and a fourth not-so-great one (thankfully, there’s been no big damage from the unseasonal rain and hail unlike in March 2015), annual consumer food price inflation is only 5.3 per cent. In the...

-The Indian Express Yes, except that farmers suffer rules other businessmen never encounter Agriculture is said to be India’s largest private-sector enterprise, engaging nearly 119 million farmers (“cultivators”) and another 144 million landless labourers, as per the 2011 Census. It is even considered the most respectable business, going by the oft-quoted slogan “uttam kheti, madhyam vyapar, kanishtha naukri (supreme is farming, mediocre is trade and most lowly is service)”. But the exalted...