-Business Standard 100 of them will have special facilities for skill development The central government will establish at least one Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK, agriculture science centre) in each of the 646 districts in country. Of this, 100 will have special facilities for skill development, while an equal number will be converted into pulses and oilseeds hubs, agriculture minister Radha Mohan Singh said on Wednesday. Addressing agriculture scientists, farmers, and technicians from KVKs...

-Livemint.com International Fund for Agricultural Development calls on govts in the Asia-Pacific region to develop targeted policies and invest in promoting inclusive development of rural areas New Delhi: Inclusive rural transformation is essential to eliminate poverty and hunger and to build inclusive and sustainable societies, according to a report compiled by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD). The rural development report 2016, released in New Delhi on Monday, points out that policies,...

-The Hindu The State has taken the lead in providing some essential and basic health-care training to these informal providers. In West Bengal, nearly 3,000 quacks — informal health-care providers with no formal medical education — are to be trained for six months. The crash course in medicine, and to be conducted by 130 trained nurses, is to begin from December 1. The objective is to provide these informal providers with a minimum...

-TheWire.in Swayam Shikshan Prayog, a Maharashtra-based non-profit, is helping women become clean energy pioneers, in an initiative that has earned them a UN climate award. Varsha Pawar of Osmanabad district in Maharashtra was like any other housewife till she started selling solar cook stoves and lamps in her neighbourhood a little over a year ago. Life was never the same again. Today, she is the sarpanch (village council chief) of Tirth Khurd,...

-The Hindu Recent years have been a watershed in the public health programme in India. We have managed to eradicate diseases such as polio and tetanus, reduced maternal and child mortality rates significantly, halved the prevalence of tuberculosis and malaria and increased the life expectancy for both adults and children. These achievements reflect the unflinching efforts of the Indian government and all stakeholders in the past two decades to ensure health...