-Hindustan Times Additional railway rakes, or train wagons, were being made available to ship fertilisers on a priority basis and at short notice, an official said. The Union government has formed a “crack team” to ensure priority movement of fertilisers to key food-bowl states as fears of shortage have triggered panic buying of crop nutrients, people familiar with the matter said. For the first time, a hub-and-spoke model is being implemented to take...

-Livemint.com NTPC Ltd plans to procure 2.5 million tonne of biomass pellets as a fuel to generate electricity at its projects NEW DELHI: As part of the Centre’ plan to contain pollution by crop stubble burning, state-run NTPC Ltd plans to procure 2.5 million tonne (mt) of biomass pellets as a fuel to generate electricity at its projects. These pellets will be mixed with coal as fuel to generate electricity. With the onset...

One is almost certain to hear this from an economist that if something is available at free of cost or at a subsidised rate thanks to government intervention, then people tend to overuse or overconsume such goods/ commodities. So, the best solution is to create a market for such 'almost freely available' or 'highly subsidised' goods or commodities. Once people start paying to use or consume such goods/ commodities, they...

-TheWire.in Corruption, poor quality construction materials and the specious implementation of schemes combined with the Centre’s flawed MSP policies have rendered the attempt to transform the region useless. Chitrakoot/ Banda: On a freezing night in early January, as anchors on television and radio jubilated in the new year and extolled the many ‘achievements’ of the incumbent government, Madhav Prasad, a 55-year-old farmer in Bundelkhand, lay anxious on a cot in his hut.  The...

-IndiaToday.in The state is experimenting with tea and coffee plantation as part of its attempt to diversify crop Has Chhattisgarh woken up to smell the coffee? For long a preserve of the south, coffee cultivation seems to be traveling north. Things started brewing after a few enterprising farmer entrepreneurs started coffee and tea plantations in the state. The Jashpur district in North Chhattisgarh has a coffee plantation; another was set up on...