-The Hindu   Court wants Centre to “distribute foodgrains on an individual basis” The Supreme Court on Saturday asked the Planning Commission to revise the per capita norms to determine below poverty line looking to the price index of May 2011 or any other subsequent dates. A Bench of Justices Dalveer Bhandari and Deepak Verma, at a special sitting to hear the case relating to streamlining of the public distribution system, pointed out...

A LEAFY VILLAGE in Kerala, Pathanpara, never found access to India’s electricity grid. That is why for the last several years, this village has been generating its own electricity. Raju, a dhoti-clad cashew nut farmer, operates Pathanpara’s five kilowatt (KW) micro hydropower plant. He lives in the village and earns a salary of Rs 2,250, paid by the People’s Electricity Committee (PEC). The power generated is shared equally by the village,...

According Maharashtra agriculture department estimates, soyabean is no longer the prime favourite in India's second largest producer as farmers shift to cotton. That could be a setback for India's attempts to become more self-sufficient in cooking oil, which is the second largest import item after crude oil. "Due to good price realisation for cotton this year, area conversion from soya to cotton is most likely to happen. It is too...

His ministry had earlier put a stop on the project citing ecological damage Delhi Govt. insisted that only the dam can solve Capital's water woes Union Environment and Forests Minister Jairam Ramesh on Sunday said he will undertake an inspection of the Nahan Valley in Himachal Pradesh, the site of the proposed Renuka Dam, which has been turned down by his office on the grounds that it involves the axing of 1.77...

Another name for Chhattisgarh is ' Dhan ka katora' or 'Rice Bowl'. There is an amazing variety of rice being grown across the region in Central India, largely dominated by tribal communities. This is a land blessed by the bounty of nature and has a combination of soil, water and temperature, which lends itself well to the cultivation of this all-important foodgrain. Yet all this amounts to very little today and...