-Livemint.com The study says that only 7.73 million hectares in India, compared to a potential 69.5 million hectares, were covered under micro-irrigation by March 2015 New Delhi: Farming uses over 90% of India’s fresh water, but despite the potential savings micro-irrigation can offer, its penetration is abysmally low, shows a recent study. Just 7.73 million hectares in India, compared to a potential 69.5 million hectares, were covered under micro-irrigation by March 2015, shows...

-The Indian Express NDA government’s plans for agriculture are still to bear fruit As the Modi government celebrates two years in office, any review of its functioning will be incomplete without examining its record on the farm front. In the two years (FY15 and FY16), while the economy grew at 7.2 per cent and 7.6 per cent respectively, agriculture and the allied sector grew at -0.2 per cent and 1.1 per cent....

-DNA To add value to the ailing farming sector in Maharashtra, which is reeling under successive droughts, agrarian distress and a negative growth rate, the state government is working on an agro-industrial policy. "We are working on an agro-industrial policy. It will look at granting incentives to agro-industries like food processing units, which will help create value chains for farmers and set up facilities like cold storages. The policy will also grant...

-The Hindu Swaraj Abhiyan is seeking to create awareness of the SC judgment and citizen’s entitlements. Latur: It’s a quarter past seven in the morning in the small village of Khandapur in Latur district. In the small window of time before the pleasant morning sun turns into unforgiving heat, a small group of people are gathered in a street next to the gram panchayat office. A group of volunteers from the Yogendra Yadav-led...

-Hindustan Times Indian families are getting smaller and the decline is sharpest among Muslims, religious census data released on Friday said, in what could be signs of rising literacy levels in the community. The report of the census carried out in 2011 was released almost a year after the government revealed religion-wise population figures from the same year. The latest data said the country’s average family size in 2011 was 4.45 members, down...