-The Times of India NEW DELHI: In an attempt to increase accessibility of information and treatment of HIV, National Aids Control Organization (NACO) has rolled out a mobile app for AIDS awareness and prevention. The app, first of its kind in India, is based on various international models. The app would provide all kinds of information on AIDS, which is not easily available otherwise. For instance, it will provide information of HIV...

-TheBetterIndia.com Youngsters in 32 villages of Ghoshergram and Jhunjkagram panchayats in Bankura district of West Bengal have formed groups that spread awareness on issues related to health, education and development in amazing ways. Kshama Mondal, 19, of Housibad village, which falls under Jhunjka gram panchayat in Chhatna block of Bankura district, West Bengal, enjoys learning new facts related to the food and nutritional needs of her people and then putting this...

-The Indian Express In 2006, the rural Development Ministry under then minister Jairam Ramesh had inked an agreement for the publication of an annual India rural Development Report by the IDFC rural Development Network. An overwhelming majority of rural, landowning households in the country are Hindus — with their number growing between 2004-05 and 2011-12 — while Muslims constitute only a small minority, a new government-endorsed study has found. According to the...

-Deccan Herald Twenty years, 35 villages and over 10 lakh surviving trees. Harshavardhan Sheelavant narrates a community initiative in Dharwad district that has converted hundreds of acres of fallow land into green orchards and transformed the lives of farmers. It was another monsoon day without rains. But the dry spell didn’t quench the spirit of residents of Belligatti village in Dharwad district who assembled near a small hillock on the outskirts of...

-The Hindu Business Line Recently, the Telangana Agricultural Advisory Forum, consisting of a few university professors and scientists, deliberated on the causes and consequences of the drought and farmer ‘suicides’ in the State. The unofficial number of suicides attributed to farm families is 1,152. An inquiry into some of the recent suicides reveals an interesting picture. The farmers were not indebted to cooperative credit societies or commercial banks. The case of a...