The land acquisition officer of Vadodara district has rejected 118 objections to the acquisition of large number of farmers' lands in Vadodara city area and the district, sources said here today. They had made a representation to the officer, who is the competent authority, in the past for not acquiring their fertile lands for the Special Railway Project Western Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC) in Vadodara district of Gujarat. Private agriculture lands of...

In a dramatic development, the South-West Monsoon has advanced and covered almost the entire country in one swoop in just about 12 hours, barring some areas in Rajasthan. Even as of Sunday evening, the India Meteorological Department had predicted that the monsoon was likely to reach Delhi in a day or two and subsequently the other parts of north India in another two to three days only. But, by Monday morning, the...

Proposal to set up mega food park in each State Three boards to be set up to promote processing of fisheries, soybean and guar gum Food processing industry accounts for 14 per cent of the total industrial output The Food Processing Ministry will give priority to farmers, self-help groups and women for providing grant-in-aid in setting up food processing enterprises. It has also identified Bihar, Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and JAMmu and Kashmir...

In a small hamlet in Andhra Pradesh’s Ghatkesar district, 20km from Hyderabad, Indus Academy is one of four schools offering private education for the poor. Run by Career Launcher India Ltd’s foundation, its three single-storey buildings house around 40 children in the age group of 4-10. The walls of the school are festooned with bright-coloured pictures, and the school boasts a laptop, a television, a DVD player and plentiful study...

vineyard owners of Maharashtra who export grapes are worried. The Euro-pean Union rejected their table grape consignments in mid-April as they were found containing traces of chlormequat chloride, a plant growth regulator. The export of table grapes (these are consumed directly unlike grapes that go into wine making) was halted immediately. The farmers are facing losses of about Rs 300 crore, media reported. “My son-in-law had exported two containers (30...