The Government does not bother to know what crops are being sown “India's daily turnover from vegetables and fruits could be easily about Rs. 275 crores (US$ 59 million). The estimated cost of ‘wastage' per day, is around Rs. 130 crores (US$ 27 million). In summary, it's a lot bigger than some of the Indian IT sector's daily turnover”, says Mr. Venkat Subramanian, Founder and Managing Director, Matchbox Solutions, a company...

The electronic post office launched this week has brought the familiar red and grey counters to your drawing room, making tiring trips and queuing up things of the past. The website www.epostoffice.gov.in offers money order service, stamps and e-tracking of registered posts to start with. It creates a virtual post office on computer screens and leads customers to the counters. The decision to launch an electronic post office was part of the...

The new food security schemes point to the capacity of agriculture to produce more when the incentives are right. Supply of cheap foodgrains will trigger demand for other food products, which the farm sector will have to meet. The many rural development programmes in operation have complex effects on the Rural Economy. Programmes such as Bharat Nirman are expected to improve connectivity of markets, provide access to more efficient sources of...

With India growing faster than almost every other large economy, the government is right to address its long-run challenges. The push for investment in infrastructure is bearing fruit and the expansion of social programmes such as the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) and the Right to Education Act (RTE) is spreading the benefits of growth across the population. But just as improved infrastructure doesn’t eliminate all traffic jams, rapid growth...

It was one comment from finance minister Pranab Mukherjee that almost blunted Left's persuasive arguments for increasing the minimum wages under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme during the Question Hour in Rajya Sabha on Tuesday. As Mukherjee was explaining how the scheme had increased the purchasing power of the people and said that the wage approved by the Parliament was Rs 100, Brinda Karat of CPM intervened to say...