-The Hindu Business Line   A total of 15 States registered an aggregate increase of 5,000 sq km in their forest cover while 12 States/Union Territories showed a decrease of 867 sq km. The country recorded a decrease of 367 square km in forest cover last year, compared with 2009, according to India State of Forest Report 2011, released here on Tuesday. The forest and tree cover of the country stands at 78.29 million...

-PTI   The government on Thursday approved setting up of a national centre for cold chain development and allocated a one-time grant of Rs 25 crore for its corpus fund. The decision comes in the wake of post Harvest losses to the tune of Rs 50,000 crore annually in absence of proper storage facilities. "The Union Cabinet today gave its ex-post facto approval for registering National Centre for Cold Chain Development (NCCD) as a...

West Bengal: An agrarian crisis looms over the State as farmers commit suicide in spite of a bumper crop. THE topic of suicide figured repeatedly in Safar Molla's conversations with his neighbours a few days before his death. The 18-year-old marginal farmer from Kaltikuri village in Bardhaman district's Bhatar block talked about it quite casually, in fact even jocularly. Everybody in the village knew he was up to his neck in...

The Madhya Pradesh government beefs up its saffron agenda with a “draconian” law. “IT is a contest between the two. The holy by-lanes of old Bhopal, which houses two of the largest mosques in Asia, the Taj-ul-Masjid and the Jama Masjid, were under attack from the holy cow,” said an activist of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), in a tone which he thought was in good humour, when asked about...

-The Business Standard Govt policy is warping farm output mix The crop output estimates for 2011-12 put out by Krishi Bhawan last week – even while projecting a record foodgrain output that would cross the 250 million-tonne mark for the first time – reveal some worrisome inter-commodity imbalances as well. The Harvests of wheat and rice – both of which are facing the prospect of a glut with the official grain coffers...