-PTI Chandigarh: Punjab, the food bowl of the country, may not achieve bumper wheat output this season, with several growing areas facing "massive" crop loss due to untimely rains accompanied by hailstorm and high velocity winds during February and this month. "We may not have bumper wheat production this season as rains along with hailstorm have damaged wheat crop in several parts of Punjab," Punjab Agriculture Director, Mangal Singh Sandhu told PTI. He...

-The Hindu Delhi, Kerala and Tamil Nadu are India's best-ranked States in terms of gender-related education indicators, new data from the Ministry of Human Resource Development and UNICEF, shows. Using district-level indicators of girls' education, health and social disadvantages, the government aims to identify the most backward pockets of the country, requiring the most attention. "Earlier, we used to look at the gender gap in indicators, and this is narrowing. However this,...

-PTI The scheme can have a negative impact on prices, productivity: FICCI-KPMG New Delhi: After the Prime Minister's referred to MGNREGA as a "monument to the failure of the UPA regime", comes a report blaming it for creating shortage of farm labour. A Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI)-KMPG report titled ‘Labour in Indian Agriculture: A Growing Challenge', released here on Wednesday, says schemes, such as the Mahatma Gandhi National...

-Down to Earth Crop loss could be to the extent of up to 20 per cent of total production in northern and central states The unusual heavy rains starting Sunday caused heavy damage to Rabi crops in north India, particularly in Bundelkhand region of Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, Vidarbha region of Maharastra, Saurashtra region of Gujarat and Punjab and Haryana. The unusual rains started around midnight on the intervening night of Saturday...

-The Hindu Lauds Finance Commission recommendations for revenue share Chief Economic Adviser Arvind Subramanian said on Friday that calculations showed that the total transfers from the Centre to the States as a percentage of the divisible pool of its net tax revenue would remain nearly the same even after the acceptance of the 14th Finance Commission's recommendations. However, transfers from the Central government would no longer be scheme-and-grant-based, and it would rather be...