Foreign direct investment (FDI) rules in agriculture may be relaxed, albeit only in non-farm wasteland and degraded lands. The Union ministry of agriculture and the department of LAND RESOURCEs under the ministry of rural development have given "in principle approval" to a proposal of the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) to invite FDI for developing non-arable land through better technology into fertile and cultivable land. Currently FDI in agriculture is...

Just two and half years ago, Kandhamal was India’s shame as a communal violence triggered by the killing of a Hindu seer left 38 people dead, thousands of houses and hundreds of churches burnt and vandalised and several thousand people scurrying to relief camps for safety. As Christian were slayed and attacked by VHP and RSS goons across the district, it forced Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to call it a...

Two-and-A-half years ago, Kandhamal was tagged as a “national shame”, after communal violence triggered by the killing of a Hindu seer left 38 people dead, with houses and churches burnt and vandalised, and thousands of people homeless. But on February 2, Kandhamal is set to get a different tag — one of “national pride” — as the Union Ministry of Rural Development awards it for being one of the top 10...

Deforestation, poachers, illicit liquor-brewers forcing them to migrate Large-scale deforestation and the disturbances caused by poachers and illicit liquor-brewers could be forcing king cobras to migrate from their natural habitat in bamboo-rich dense evergreen forests to villages nearby. A study conducted by the researchers of the Department of Zoology, University of Kerala, and the Reptile Study Group, Thiruvananthapuram, has revealed that the king cobra, the world's longest venomous snake, is under...

The Sonia Gandhi-led National Advisory Council has been snubbed once again by the government, this time by the tribal affairs ministry. The ministry rejected all recommendations made by the council to reform the implementation of the Forest Rights Act — the UPA's flagship programme and law to give land rights back to tribals and forest dwellers. The National Advisory Council had recommended strong measures for restoration of forest lands to...