The amount of rural reportage in the Indian media remains far too low, with even important stories such as those on farmer suicides tending to be ignored. One of the outspoken critics of this trend has been P Sainath, rural-affairs editor of The Hindu  and 2007 winner of the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Journalism, Literature and Creative Communication Arts. He was also the journalist who originally broke the story on...

In yet another embarrassment for the Chandigarh Administration, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has directed it to “put on hold the acquisition of land for IT Park, Phase-III”. In a communication sent to the Administration on Monday evening, the MHA has minced no words in directing the Administration to stop the acquisition process and take prior permission from the ministry for acquisition of proposed projects in the peripheral area...

India has been ranked 67, way below neighbouring countries like China and Pakistan, in a new global hunger index by the International Food Policy Research Institute. The index, released on Monday, rated 84 countries on the basis of three leading indicators -- prevalence of child malnutrition, rate of child mortality, and the proportion of people who are calorie deficient. China is rated much ahead of India at the ninth place. The 2010 Global...

The farmers need to come out of their traditional mindset and develop business acumen to reap the benefits of food processing that has a lot to offer to the country, says joint secretary, ministry of food processing industries, Government of India, Ajit Kumar. Kumar was in the city to inaugurate one-day orientation training programme on food processing for farmers at then Banaras Hindu University on Sunday. Saying that commercial orientation and awareness...

After the Niyamgiri ban, a controversy is brewing in Chhattisgarh over bauxite mining by Vedanta Resources, the UK-based mining conglomerate, in the Maikal hill ranges in Kawardha district with the opposition Congress demanding a probe into alleged large-scale infringement of green and tribal areas and violation of panchayat laws. "The devastation in Kawardha caused by mining activities of Vedanta Group is greater and worse than Orissa. Vedanta Group has managed to...