The agriculture ministry has decided to drastically reduce the number of central schemes after it found that most of its schemes, barring a few like the Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojna (RKVY), have become redundant. The farm ministry thinks only 10 of the 51 existing schemes should be sufficient to take care of the sector. The total outlay for agriculture schemes is 15,034 crore. "It is true that many of our 51 schemes...

-The Business Standard   After a smooth beginning to the Posco land acquisition work on Wednesday, the Jagatsinghpur district administration today faced a roadblock in the process as many villagers did not turn up for identification of betel vines following the arrest of 32 activists of United Action Committee, a pro-Posco outfit. UAC had boycotted the land acquisition work as it was aggrieved over the non-fulfillment of its demands. On the wee hours...

Census will be based on automatic exclusion and inclusion criteria The Below the Poverty Line (BPL) census, approved by the Union Cabinet on Thursday, will be an exercise in identifying households that will fit the bill within the poverty cap of 46 per cent of the rural population of India. The identification of the 46 per cent poverty cap, estimated by the Planning Commission, will be done through a set of automatic...

A Working Group (WG) set up by the Sonia Gandhi-led National Advisory Council (NAC) has drafted a detailed note on land acquisition and relief and rehabilitation which seeks not only to go beyond the pending government bills on the subject, but recommends that the two be merged into a single National Development, Acquisition, Displacement and Rehabilitation Act. Interestingly, it rejects the Haryana model that Congress leaders only too often hold up...

It's early morning in rural Rajasthan and the sun is already burning. Only the brave have ventured out into the harsh, radiating heat. At the dusty Kanpura village, farmers are hard at work, grading their harvest. But the dry, still air is slowing them down. For Jeevan Ram Kharol, selling his produce is the only source of income. Last year, the drought brought him no returns. Now he's hoping the harvest will...