To control inflation and ensure long-term economic growth, India needs to harness the creativity of the large number of its farmers and entrepreneurs, especially in rural areas. The latest WPI inflation data show primary articles inflation in double digit, driven mainly by food inflation which remains stubbornly high at over 9 per cent. The high food prices are the result of structural factors with shortages getting aggravated as demand continues to outstrip...

-The Telegraph   Indian plant biologists have sequenced the full genome of pigeonpea, arming themselves with information that they say will help speed up the development of improved pigeonpea varieties and boost yields of India’s most popular pulse. A consortium of scientists from the Indian Council of Agricultural Research and several academic institutions has identified 47,004 genes that code for proteins in the pigeonpea (arhar or tur), a grain legume that is consumed...

India's abysmal gender inequality statistics seem to have taken a turn for the worse. New data shows the country's Gender Inequality Index (GII) worsened between 2008 and 2011, and India now ranks 129 out of 146 countries on the GII, better only than Afghanistan in south Asia. On the Human Development Index (HDI), India ranks 134 out of 187 countries. When inequality is factored in, it experiences a 30% drop in...

-PTI   Union Minister for Rural Development Jairam Ramesh today refuted the charge that National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) had caused labour shortage in sectors like agriculture and construction. Ramesh said that there was a deliberate attempt to spread propaganda discrediting NREGA. "The scheme has increased agricultural wages, reduced distressed migration in some parts of the country and created community assets particularly water conservation structures. Of course, there is room for improvement," the...

Ahead of next year’s assembly elections, the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government plans to revise a proposed food security law to bring it in line with a previous draft that is deemed more liberal, and expedite its execution. Congress president Sonia Gandhi, who also heads the National Advisory Council (NAC) that drafted the initial National Food Security Bill, has suggested some crucial changes to the version that was made public...