-The Telegraph After doctors, teachers from urban areas will now have to serve in rural areas of Assam. Announcing that the process of recruitment of 40, 800 schoolteachers would begin from February 15, education minister Himanta Biswa Sarma today said candidates from urban areas would have to serve in rural areas, as villages have more vacancies while more urban candidates passed the teacher’s eligibility test this year. Dispur has made teacher eligibility test...

World Bank arm finances polluting steel mill in Jharkhand As the train slowly approaches Jamshedpur town in Jharkhand, the sky begins to turn reddish. It is because of the thick red dust emanating from an industrial unit, surrounded by heaps of industrial solid waste comprising unburnt coal char and flyash. The unit is a medium-scale iron and steel mill belonging to conglomerate Usha Martin. Spread over 120 hectares, the mill became operational...

India has been striving to achieve 4% growth rate in farm output since the beginning of Ninth Five-Year Plan. However, actual growth rate has remained invariably lower than the targeted growth rate. Further, agriculture witnessed a sharp slowdown during mid-1990s to the middle of the first decade of 21st century.  Annual growth rate in farm GDP declined to 2.4% a year during 1995-96 to 2004-05 from more than 3% in the...

The Supreme Court today vacated a 2010 Gauhati High Court order that banned recruitment of elementary school (lower and upper primary) teachers in Assam. This will pave the way for recruitment of some 1,00,000 teachers in the state. The high court had on March 5, 2010, restrained the state from recruiting teachers on a petition that challenged illegal appointments of 3,813 (3,147 in lower primary and 666 in upper primary schools) teachers...

-PTI   In its Budget wish-list, the Agriculture Ministry has demanded lowering of interest rate on crop loans to 3% for those farmers who pay in time, from the existing 4%. According to sources, the ministry has suggested an additional 1% interest subvention (subsidy) on short-term crop loans of up to Rs 3 lakh to farmers who pay their dues on time. Other farmers get crop loans at seven% interest rate. The 2012-13 Budget...