-The World Bank About 7.8 million rural people are expected to directly benefit from the project NEW DELHI: The government of India and the World Bank today signed a $500 million credit agreement to improve piped water supply and sanitation services through decentralized delivery systems in the states of Assam, Bihar, Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh. The credit agreement for the Rural Water Supply and Sanitation (RWSS) Project for Low Income States was signed...

-The Financial Express Unless we get it right on the markets front, including opening up of exports, farmers cannot get their full due One of the key objectives of agricultural price policy in India is to ensure that agriculture remains a remunerative occupation so that farmers are incentivised to adopt modern technologies that help raise productivity and overall production of various crops in the country broadly in line with the emerging demand...

-Grain.org "We take care of the cow and the cow takes care of us," says Marayal, a farmer in Thalavady, Tamil Nadu. Her two cows produce 6 to 10 litres of milk a day, which she sells for 30-40 cents per litre. Across India, there are millions of backyard dairy farmers like Marayal. Each owning just one or two cows, these farmers supply millions more families and hundreds of thousands of informal...

-The Indian Express The environment ministry under Veerappa Moily has approved the $ 12.6 billion Posco steel plant in Orissa, the biggest foreign direct investment in India. The proposed 12 million-tonnes-per-year plant has been stuck for more than eight years due to delays in getting clearances and acquiring land. Top sources confirmed to The Indian Express that the steel plant got the green signal after it was delinked from the port project. It...

-The New Indian Express   Most people would have been shocked to read the year-end report that India has been ranked 63rd, much below countries like Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal, on the Global Hunger Index (GHI), a yardstick used by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) to comprehensively measure global hunger. The index is calculated as an average of three indices-undernourishment, underweight children and low child mortality rate-and is measured on a...