-The Times of India TRICHY: From now one, children in some of the anganwadi centres under the integrated child development services (ICDS) scheme in Trichy can relish new varieties of mixed food served during lunch. The scheme was introduced in 93 centres in Manikandam block and 119 centres in project-I in the city on Monday. The new scheme would ensure that four different varieties of mixed food prepared with vegetables will be...

-The Hindu Trap crops are grown to attract insects or other organisms to protect main crops from pest attack. Protection may be achieved either by preventing the pests from reaching the crop or by concentrating them in certain parts of the field where they can be destroyed. The principle of trap cropping rests on the fact that virtually all pests show a distinct preference to a certain crop stage. Farmers are being...

-Outlook Chandigarh: In the wake of shortage of supplies from neighbouring states like Himachal Pradesh, prices of vegetables including tomato and potato have seen a significant surge in the last one week in Punjab and Haryana. Tomato prices have jumped from Rs 50 last week to Rs 70 per kg in the retail markets this week, traders said. Over a month ago, tomatoes, which are integral to preparation of most Punjabi dishes, were...

-Outlook More government took Himachal near the top of development indices In the run-up to the Lok Sabha elections, the buzz around the so-called ‘Gujarat model' was such that without really knowing what it stood for, everyone wanted it. ‘Minimum Government, Maximum Governance' is as close as one could get in terms of concrete proposals. However, when one looks at the achievements of Gujarat, the buzz turns to a whimper (see...

-The Economic Times None of the standard explanations quite explain the rise in food prices India has seen: pronounced since 2006 and alarming after 2010. Drought and poor rains? The country has seen good aggregate rainfall in most of those years. Spike in global prices? Those were high in 2007-08, not now. Fragmented value chains that allow middlemen to grab large margins? The value chain has always been fragmented. Growth has slowed...