-The Hindu Business Line India’s manufacturing needs higher investment in education and R&D to become self-reliant and technologically competent The share of manufacturing in India’s GDP has stagnated at 16 per cent since 1991, despite economic reforms. No country ever became a manufacturing force without (a) a design capability; and (b) an institutional system that incentivises and sustains innovations. India needs a system to develop human and technical capabilities at both the...

-Economic and Political Weekly The dependence of agriculture on natural resources requires sustainable management of these resources for risk mitigation and management, particularly in the context of increasing farmer distress and vulnerability to risks associated with climate change. Using a framework of indicators in the domains of pest management, fertiliser use, soil health, water conservation, biodiversity, and efficient use of Inputs, statewise report cards on ecological sustainability of agriculture are provided....

-The Hindu Business Line Panel has recommended renaming the National Bee Board as the Honey and Pollinators Board under the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers' Welfare. There is a need to recognise honeybees as Inputs to agriculture and consider landless beekeepers as farmers, according to the Beekeeping Development Committee (BDC), which released its report on Wednesday. It has further suggested that training and development of beekeepers should be provided by state governments. In...

-TheWire.in To rectify this gap between perception and reality, inequality of opportunities and the lack of emphasis on primary education need to feature more prominently in Indian policy discussions. We are constantly reminded of how Narendra Modi started from humble beginnings by selling tea and rose to occupy the position of the prime minister of India. Irrespective of which side of the political divide one is on, there is no disputing the...

-The Hindu Business Line The government bears over Rs. 70,000 crore annually as subsidy to provide cheaper farm nutrient to farmers. The government is seriously thinking of giving fertiliser subsidy directly to farmers under the second phase of implementation of direct benefit transfer (DBT) scheme, a senior fertiliser ministry official said on Thursday. In October 2017, the first phase of fertiliser DBT was rolled out, under which subsidy is being transferred to companies...