-The Economic Times   The Ministry of Agriculture provides assistance to farmers for remunerative returns to farmers and to ensure adequate supply of fruits and vegetables to consumers, under National Horticulture Mission and Horticulture Mission for North-East and Himalayan States ( HMNEH).  This includes assistance for cultivation, establishment of cold storages, setting up of terminal markets, wholesale markets and rural primary markets/apni mandies. National Horticulture Board is also implementing various schemes.  Further, the Ministry...

While the government may be finding it difficult to get its FDI in multi-brand retail pass the test of Parliament, India Inc has been pledging huge investments in wholesale and retail trade abroad, including in countries like the US and the UK.   In the 2010-11 fiscal, investments of Indian companies in wholesale and retail trade overseas went up 78% as compared to the previous year - up from $1,052 million in...

-The Times of India   Given the debate that's raging over opening the retail sector to foreign direct investment, we bring you the government's view, the opposition's objections and TOI's take on the issue. Government argument * Huge investments in the retail sector will see gainful employment opportunities in agro-processing, sorting, marketing, logistics management and front-end retail. * At least 10 million jobs will be created in the next three years in the retail sector. *...

India ranks a dismal 134 among 187 countries in terms of human development index in the UNDP's latest Human Development Report. Against this bleak backdrop, the bugle of caution is rightly sounded by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in its latest Human Development Report (HDR), released in Copenhagen on November 2 jointly by Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt and UNDP Administrator Helen Clark. As the international community is busy preparing...

An unprecedented economic growth during the last decade has also seen increasing malnutrition, hunger and starvation amongst certain sections of society. India ranks 66 in the Food and Agriculture Organisation’s (FAO’s) World Hunger Index of 88 countries (Inter-national Food Policy Research Institute). More than 200 million people in this country are denied the right to food. One-third of all underweight children (57 million) in the world due to lack of...