-The Hindu "Farming is fascinating. The only thing is that it requires continuous hard-work and devotion without any distraction" says Mr. Barun Singh, a government bank manager-Turned-farmer. Mr. Barun Singh maintains a vermi-composting unit in a portion of his 10 acre land. A dairy unit is attached to the composting unit so that the cattle dung can be easily utilized for the process without much labour involvement. Waste materials like dried leaves, rotten...

-The Telegraph The Union health ministry has signalled its intentions to go ahead with plans to introduce a cadre of rural health care providers through a new BSc course, ignoring objections from a parliamentary panel. The ministry told Delhi High Court this week that it had sent a draft cabinet note on the three-and-a-half-year course in community health to the Prime Minister's Office for comments. This is standard procedure before the matter...

-The Telegraph The sudden arrest of Amway India's top brass on Monday has focused the spotlight on the crumbling fault lines and the grey areas in the demarcation between some of the world's best-known direct selling companies and the dodgy Ponzi schemes that promise huge reTurns to gullible investors and have lately grabbed all the sensational headlines in Bengal. William S. Pinckney, managing director of Amway India, and two directors of the...

-The Economic Times DANTEWADA: With both the Congress and BJP advocating an intensification of the military campaign against the Naxals, and the UPA government at the Centre even committing more troops to Chhattisgarh, local development in the state could become a casualty in the crossfire. "An outside force is less capable of discriminating between Naxals and villagers," says Vishwa Ranjan, former director general police, Chhattisgarh. Such an intensification will result in greater...

-The Hindustan Times Although crusader-Turned-politician Arvind Kejriwal seems optimistic about his Aam Aadmi Party's (AAP) performance in the upcoming Delhi assembly polls, many voters apparently think otherwise. Many of the voters in Delhi hail Kejriwal's decision of launching the party, but they are not sure whether they would exercise their franchise in favour of the newly-launched 'people's party'. According to them, the party lacks local presence, has a one-point agenda and indicates no...