-TheWeekendLeader.com Despite a drought-like situation across Rajasthan this year, farmers of a small village on the edge of the Thar Desert reaped good harvest from their fruit orchards. They are growing vegetables this winter. Just five years ago, residents of Khidrat struggled to arrange drinking water, let alone water for irrigation. Due to scanty rainfall (see table), groundwater was not only dipping, it had turned brackish. Even deep borewells would yield saline...

-The Hindu Ryots can use it at all bank ATMs to withdraw cash to buy fertilizer or seed TIRUPATI (Andhra Pradesh): ‘RuPay', the multipurpose smart card envisaged to enable payments from various financial institutions to beneficiaries through an impressive network of ATMs, is all set to benefit the farming community more than ever before, said National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) Chairman Harsh Kumar Bhanwala. Speaking after releasing and distributing the...

-Outlook Lucknow: Union Minister Jairam Ramesh has shot off another letter to Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav seeking early implementation of the Allahabad High Court order on CBI inquiry into misappropriation of funds under the NREGA. While recalling his earlier correspondence to the Chief Minister, in a fresh letter issued yesterday, Ramesh stressed on the necessity for a CBI probe into funds misappropriation in seven districts including Balrampur, Gonda, Mahoba, Sonbhadra,...

The more things change, the more they remain the same. Probably, this can be said about the ‘Sample Registration System Statistical Report 2012', which carries the latest figures on the social sector by far. The report has provided some interesting trends in child mortality indicators for India and its bigger states during 2012 (see the links below). It says that states like Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra, which have consistently...

-Outlook Raipur: The Chhattisgarh government today said that 43 people, who were part of the urban network of the Maoists, were arrested in the state during past five years. In a written reply to a question from senior Congress legislator Bhupesh Baghel in the state Assembly, Home Minister Ramsewak Paikra informed the House that as many as 43 people, including women, were arrested from 2009 till January 20 this year on charges...