-The Economic Times   Contracts for building 11,050 kms of roads will be awarded in the current fiscal year involving an estimated investment of Rs 70,000 crore, as per the target set by the Ministry of Road , Transport and Highways . The ambitious road building plans were reviewed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today with Road Transport Minister C P Joshi and senior officials of the ministry and the National Highways...

The Congress-led UPA is on bended knee trying to placate Swami Ramdev in the run-up to his fast but it’s the Sangh Parivar, specifically the RSS, that could hold the cards. On May 27, eight days before the scheduled start of the fast on June 4, a written circular, signed by RSS general secretary Bhaiyyaji Joshi, went out to provincial organisers. The note specifically asked them to instruct swayamsevaks to support...

The National Advisory Council has proposed a framework for the National Food Security Act. But its potential could be wasted by a flawed approach to the PDS. Two years have passed since the Central government announced that a draft National Food Security Act (NFSA) would be posted on the Food Ministry's website “very soon.” After prolonged deliberations, a detailed framework for this Act has recently been proposed by the National Advisory...

If the problems are macro, think micro. That seems to have been the guiding principle for Lekha-Mendha, the Maharashtra village that last month became the first in India to win the right to grow, harvest and sell bamboo. Such rights are the key goal of a five-year-old central law which aims to give tribal communities control over some resources of the jungles they live in. “There is no point in looking out...

-Guardian   A budding interest in organic food offers farmers soaring incomes and higher yields, but critics say it's not the answer to India's fast-rising food demands India's struggling farmers are starting to profit from a budding interest in organic living. Not only are the incomes of organic farmers soaring – by 30% to 200%, according to organic experts – but their yields are rising as the pesticide-poisoned land is repaired through natural...