-The Economic Times NEW DELHI: The government plans to rope in various departments and ministries such as agriculture, land resources, horticulture and social forestry to create bigger and more durable assets under the rural job guarantee scheme, going ahead with its plans to revamp the national programme. "Considering the capacity constraint at the gram panchayat level, which is the main implementing agency for allocating works under the scheme, we are considering to...

-Tehelka The new and improved Bill to prevent atrocities against Dalits runs the risk of being put in the cold storage A crime against Dalits happens every 18 minutes - three women raped every day, 13 murdered every week, 27 atrocities every day, six kidnapped every week and so on. This is the data compiled by the National Campaign on Dalit Human Rights, an NGO, which paints a grim picture of Indian...

-The New Indian Express IDUKKI: Contamination of Water bodies due to excessive use of pesticides and chemical fertilisers in the High Range areas has been constantly causing stress for cardamom farmer and farmer scientist Reji Njallani. This made him develop a method which would prevent the flow of hazardous chemicals into rivers and other Water bodies. After years of research, he has found a solution to the problem by developing what...

-The New Indian Express KOCHI (Kerala): Around 2 tonnes of seabass (Kalanchi) and over 170 kg of pearl spot (Karimeen), all cultured in cages, were harvested from the fish farms at Kakkamadanthuruth and Thiruthur in the Puthenvelikkara Panchayat. The cage culture was initiated as part of the ‘Samagra Matsyagramam' project under the Kerala University of Fisheries and Ocean Studies (KUFOS), with the support of the Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY), and...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: The Union rural development ministry today highlighted the findings of select studies to defend its plan to modify the rural job guarantee scheme and answer critics who have accused it of trying to dilute the programme. A ministry note that cited these studies said the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) needed reforms to increase the creation of productive and durable assets and reduce politics and...