The issue of acquiring farmland for industry is threatening to jolt West bengal's Left Front, the world's longest-running democratically elected Communist government, says Sumit Bhattacharya A confidential digital map shows exactly how many land owners had taken the compensation, how many had taken partial compensation, and how many had refused to part with their land for the botched Tata Nano plant in Singur, West bengal. The map -- based on Global...

Trouble-mongers will think twice before creating nuisance within polling booth premises during the Assembly elections in West bengal as live videos of more than 1,000 critical booths will be directly monitored by the Election Commission through ‘web-casting.' The general public will also be able to stream the live videos by logging on to the West bengal Chief Electoral Officer's site. A first-time initiative in the State elections, the technique will be put...

A survey by the West Midnapore administration has found that over two lakh voters, three fourths of them in Maoist-affected areas, are afraid of voting. District officials said the survey of nearly five lakh people to identify “vulnerable voters” had been carried out following instructions from the Election Commission. “As West Midnapore has the largest Maoist-affected area in the state, the commission had asked us to find out about the fear factor...

Delhi and Chandigarh may hardly have any land left for agriculture but when it comes to availing cheap farm loans, they beat top agricultural states of the country. Residents of the two cities took agricultural loans worth over Rs 32,400 crore in 2009-10 – more than UP, West bengal, Bihar and Jharkhand put together. The four agrarian states collectively got less than Rs 31,000 crore in 2009-10. Delhi alone has, since 2007-08,...

While global outlook for rice production is adequate as of today, complacency of policy-makers worldwide in terms of making enough investments in agriculture has led to resurfacing of old diseases in addition to new ones threatening the gains made in this field in the past, according to R S Zeigler, director general of the Manila-based International Rice Research Institute (IRRI). Addressing the annual rice research group meeting held by Directorate of...