-The Business Standard   Badly structured insurance leaves Indian farmers exposed Ever since its inception in the early 1970s, agricultural insurance has defied all attempts to make it farmer-friendly and economically viable. Over half a dozen different models for farm risk management have been tried out, but with little success. The systems currently used - the National Agricultural Insurance Scheme (NAIS) and the Modified NAIS (MNAIS) - were objected to by the Insurance...

-The Hindu   Forest cover loss has occurred at a period when area under jhum cultivation is declining, suggesting that the land use policy has been counterproductive to forests Two spectacular bamboo dances, one celebrated, the other reviled, enliven the mountains of Mizoram. In the colourful Cheraw, Mizo girls dance as boys clap bamboo culms at their feet during the annual Chapchar Kut festival. The festival itself is linked to the other dance:...

-The Business Standard   Agriculture dept has begun the process of collecting data on farmers and their lands Mysore (Karnataka): Process is on to provide unique identification numbers, similar to ‘Aadhaar' issued by the Unique Identification of Authority of India, to farmers in Karnataka. Under the scheme, all details about farmers and their lands, collected under the ‘K-Kisan' scheme, will be pooled and a unique identification number like the ‘Aadhaar' will be issued to...

-Down to Earth   All safe motherhood programmes of the government are focused on institutional deliveries, but health centres are in disarray. Experts suggest ways to reduce deaths during delivery Lal Mohan, a daily wage labourer, has no clue what took his wife's life. Sarita Devi, 25, was expecting her third child, and was on way to a good hospital at Bhagalpur district in Bihar. "She was normal all through the nine months...

-The Hindustan Times       Gandhinagar (Gujarat): Narendra Modi may have criticised Aadhaar, but official documents show the Gujarat government has implemented the central programme efficiently, while collecting more personal data than required in some cases. The Gujarat government also warned people of "penal action" if the data was not submitted, the documents said, adding chief minister Modi was appointed as the chairperson of the committee overseeing the implementation of Aadhaar. These documents...