The National Advisory Council (NAC), headed by UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi, will consider ways to boost Indian agriculture as part of its drive to review the draft food security bill on July 1. “The NAC will address the sorry state of Indian agriculture, which recorded negative (-2 per cent) growth in 2010, and try to find ways to boost it in the long term,” said an NAC member. “The idea is...
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'Hike in pulses MSP will encourage farmers'
The Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti (VJAS) has welcomed the government decision to raise the minimum support price (MSP) for pulses for the kharif season. The increase, which ranges from Rs 380 per quintal to Rs 700 per quintal, is part of the government’s strategy to boost production of pulses in the country. The hike in MSP for pulses this year is significant, both in terms of absolute increase and percentage...
More »Food inflation hit war on poverty by Chetan Chauhan
Rising food prices and economic crisis have eaten into the gains made by India and the world in reducing poverty during the first half of this decade, a United Nations report released on Wednesday said. "Newly updated estimates from the World Bank suggest the crisis will heave an some 64 million into extreme poverty by end of 2010, principally in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia," the Millennium Development Goals, 2010 report...
More »Rich getting richer: 120k Indians hold a third of national income by Rukmini Shrinivasan
Last year may have been a cruel year for much of the country with slow growth and double-digit food inflation, but India's high net worth individuals (HNWIs) prospered — just over 120,000 in number, or 0.01% of the population, their combined worth is close to one-third of India's Gross National Income (GNI). HNWIs, in this context, are defined as those having investable assets of $1 million or more, excluding primary...
More »“Review implementation of rural job scheme”
CUDDALORE: As labour shortage has been “daunting the farm sector,” the Joint Action Council of farmers' associations has appealed to the government to review the implementation of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee (MGNREG) Scheme that takes away a major chunk of the workforce. The JAC, which met here on Monday , adopted a resolution. It said that besides the vagaries of weather, what was hindering the growth of the farm sector...
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