-PTI Good monsoon improves prospects of better foodgrain production this year Nagpur: Foodgrain prouction is likely to touch a record 263.2 million tonnes (mt) this year, beating the previous high of 259 mt achieved two years ago, Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar said today. "The country is likely to achieve record 263.2 mt foodgrain production this year. This would be about 4 mt higher than the record of 259 million tonnes achieved two years...

In its latest report, the Statistical Year Book, India 2014 conveys that India is clearly on track to attain the MDG-2 (achieve universal primary education) and MDG-8 (develop a global partnership for development). However, the results are either mixed or poor in terms of India's performance in achieving the rest of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The chart below provides the MDG scenario from a bird's eye view.   The new...

-The Indian Express Kutch (Gujarat): Bhajan Singh, 62, remembers the time curious villagers turned up to see a borewell his father Gopal Singh had dug up. The year was 1969 and it was the first time Sumrasar village, near Bhuj in Kutch district, had had a borewell. Few had ever seen it work, as they depended entirely on rainwater for the barely one crop they harvested a year. Originally from Pakistan, Gopal...

-Down to Earth Over 30 per cent urban slums across India have no toilets or drainage facilities, in spite of funds being made available under JNNURM and other schemes Only 24 per cent of urban slums of across India benefited from Central government welfare schemes such as the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) and Rajiv Awas Yojana (RAY) and other schemes run by state governments and local bodies, according to...

-Press Information Bureau (MoSPI) The National Sample Survey Office (NSSO), Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation has released the key indicators of urban slums in India, generated from the data collected in its 69th round survey during July 2012 to December 2012. The last survey on slums was conducted as part of the 65th round of NSS (July 2008- June 2009). Slums are part of urban environment and they are identified by...