India has inked 20 MoUs in the field of agriculture with U.S., Russia, Italy and others in the last three years for cooperation in research and development and capacity building, Parliament was informed today. Besides fostering bilateral partnership, India also entered into agreement in the farm sector in multilateral format. Broad based and inclusive multilateral cooperation is pursued through international organisations such as Food & Agriculture Organisation (FAO), World Food Programme (WFP)...

India's vegetables production is estimated to rise by 6 per cent in 2010-11 and recent high prices of onion were mainly on the back of lower and delayed arrivals in markets caused by initial damage to the crop due to unseasonal rain, Parliament was informed today. Vegetable production in India is estimated to touch 141.3 million tonnes in 2010-11, against 133.5 million tonnes in 2009-10, Minister of State for Agriculture Arun...

India is free from the deadly stem rust fungal disease in wheat which destroyed swathes of the staple foodgrain crop in Africa and other parts of the world, Parliament was informed today.   "Wheat varieties grown in India are resistant to most of the Indian races of stem rust. Several varieties are also resistant to the new race (Ug99) of stem rust as per testing carried out in Kenya and Ethiopia,"...

Politicians admit breaking election law: ‘yes, that's the great thing about democracy' Politicians and their aides in Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh admitted to violating election law to influence voters in the 2009 Lok Sabha polls through payments in the form of cash, goods, or services, according to a revealing cable sent to the State Department by Frederick J. Kaplan, Acting Principal Officer of the U.S. Consulate-General in Chennai. In...

The 2010 Chameli Devi Jain award for “Outstanding Woman Media Person” was presented to a former Tehelka correspondent from Thiruvananthapuram, Shahina K.K, at a function here on Tuesday for her “demonstrated ability to focus on issues that have deep social consequences impacting lives and concerns of ordinary people.” Ms. Shahina, who has 13 years of experience in print and television media and is presently writing for Open magazine, accepted the award...