-The Indian Express The Situation Assessment Survey (SAS) of agricultural households, released last week by the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO), is the second one ever to be done. The SAS of 2003 was necessitated by the agrarian crisis of the time. Farmer suicides had reached a peak, and the reference year for the survey, 2002-2003, had seen severe drought. The agricultural sector was in crisis, with growth rates slowing to...
More »SEARCH RESULT
This farmer grows 11 crops on 6 acres -Rishikesh Bahadur Desai
-The Hindu Nidoda Vaijanath, who follows an integrated farming model, keeps himself updated by reading, consulting scientists Bidar (Karnataka): How many crops can you grow on six acres? For this enterprising farmer from Bidar, the answer is 11. Nidoda Vaijanath of Kamathana village also keeps cows, buffaloes and sheep and also has a mini-poultry farm. His farm has small patches covered with fig, cashew, ginger, watermelon, lime, mosambi, drumstick, brinjal, coriander, mango and curry...
More »Bengal’s NREGA not a rosy picture -Sumanta Ray Chaudhuri
-The Hindustan Times According to Nabanna sources, a rough average of working days created under MGNREGA in Bengal during the last three years shows that the state ranks a lowly16th among all states on this count. On the basis of the same average during the last three years in terms of working days created during the same period, the figure for Bengal is much lower than the national average. During the period...
More »Exposing Delhi’s air pollution, from the back of an autorickshaw
-AP American scientist Joshua Apte travels in an autorickshaw to present alarming findings for anyone who spends time on or near the roads in this city of 25 million. The autorickshaw lurched through New Delhi's commuter-clogged streets with an American scientist and several air pollution monitors in the back seat. Car horns blared. A scrappy scooter buzzed by belching black smoke from its tailpipe. One of the monitors spiked. Joshua Apte has alarming...
More »Executive Decision: How NDA is tweaking social sector laws -Nitin Sethi
-The Business Standard The NDA is using the discretionary powers allocated by the UPA government to either chip away at or metastasize social sector programmes The NDA government has found two ways to deal with the social sector programmes and policies it has got from UPA as legacy. Some of these the NDA wants shrunk or diminished and it's doing so through executive fiat, often in stealth mode. Then there are others...
More »