The government’s programme to usher in a green revolution in West Bengal, Assam, Orissa, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and eastern Uttar Pradesh will see a key change in the next financial year. The allocation of funds, which was more skewed towards West Bengal so far, will now shift towards eastern Uttar Pradesh, according to guidelines framed for implementing the scheme. Officials said this was largely because a new component of wheat had been...

India's effective literacy rate has recorded a 9.2% rise to reach 74.04%, according to provisional data of the 2011 census released on Thursday. Even as there was a sense of achievement at the improvement in the literacy rate, questions are being raised about what constitutes literacy and the real import of the continued high gender GAP. Literacy rate improved sharply among females as compared to males. While the effective literacy rate for...

Ever wondered what information the vast internet contains about alphonsoes? Not enough juice: just a list of exporters and a scant wiki-page. To fill this GAP came agropedia. A content farm, a search engine and an online meeting ground for farmers and agri cultural students, the agropedia is for all those who have a haphazard and fuzzy idea about food. It is also for those who want to make the internet...

India is expected to witness 5.4 per cent growth in the farm sector in the current fiscal 2010-11 as indicated by substantial expansion in area and production of major crops in both Kharif and Rabi seasons, official sources said today. "In the first half of 2010-11, farm sector has achieved growth of 3.8 per cent, rebounding from -0.1 per cent and 0.4 per cent in the previous two years," an official...

The union finance ministry’s decision to partially subside capital investment in healthcare and education by extending the “viability GAP funding” facility to these sectors is welcome as they are vital areas of social infrastructure, which are no less important than roads and bridges. But every sector has its own complexity and the nuancing that the health ministry has sought for such subsidy to healthcare infrastructure needs serious attention. The ministry’s...