A Right to Information (RTI) application filed by activist Subhash Chandra Agrawal seeking details to make public the assets and liabilities owned by ministers has thrown up interesting results. The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), moving away from its earlier stand of not making public ministers' assets and liabilities, on Thursday gave over 400 pages of complete details filed by Members of Parliament. According to the RTI report, Minister of State for...
More »SEARCH RESULT
Central sops to stop paddy diversion in Kerala by M Sarita Varma
As rubber prices soared to Rs 180 per kg, even land, which is not traditionally best suited for rubber is getting converted in Kerala, thus shrinking the area under paddy cultivation. To stop diversion of paddy area towards rubber farms, the Kerala government has decided to implement a Rs 2,111-crore central package for paddy development in Kuttanad district, major producer of rice in the state. “Procurement price of paddy is now as...
More »Bringing Light to India's Rural Area by Amy Yee
As dusk falls, the sound of children singing fills the air at the SOS Tibetan Children’s Village in Bylakuppe, five hours’ drive from Bangalore in southern India. Night descends on the tidy, stone-paved school campus carved out of the lush jungle. But darkness is dispelled when 20 solar-powered street lights on the campus begin to glow with a steady white light. Thirty dormitories set among groves of coconut palm trees are...
More »Brazil has revolutionised its own farms. Can it do the same for others? by Piaui Cremaq
IN A remote corner of Bahia state, in north-eastern Brazil, a vast new farm is springing out of the dry bush. Thirty years ago eucalyptus and pine were planted in this part of the cerrado (Brazil’s savannah). Native shrubs later reclaimed some of it. Now every field tells the story of a transformation. Some have been cut to a litter of tree stumps and scrub; on others, charcoal-makers have moved...
More »SC proposals for more grain by Samanwaya Rautray
The Supreme Court today made several suggestions for making use of foodgrain said to be rotting in godowns and fighting hunger in the country. The rebuke to food minister Sharad Pawar — “it was an order, not a suggestion to distribute free grain to the poor” — overshadowed some of the other proposals which, if implemented, will force the central government to increase food allocation to the states. The bench of Justices...
More »