Inspired by India’s “Green Revolution”, Malawi has sought Indian assistance in its “Greenbelt initiative” aimed at raising agricultural output. The southeast African nation is looking to India to tap its huge uranium deposits. Malawi is also negotiating to sign Double Taxation as well as Investment Promotion and Protection agreements with India. “Our main aim is to get India’s participation in our Greenbelt initiative to increase our farming capacity,” visiting Malawian Trade and...

A meticulous study of the agrarian relations in three villages. ONE of our senior sociologists once drew my attention to the distinction between economics and other social sciences. Other social sciences – sociology and anthropology, for instance – he said, pay a great deal of attention to gathering primary data and interpreting them, whereas economics relies on secondary data for its analysis. This is, to a large extent, a fair...

The government has assured full support to Indian companies exploring opportunities to acquire agricultural land in Africa for cultivation of pulses in order to deal with its domestic shortage. "We import pulses and we will be more supportive of more land being brought under cultivation and for value addition. India is the market and we have been investing in agriculture...," Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma had said. With the unabated...

Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda today said nationalised banks should reduce interest rates as has been done by state cooperative banks on short-term loans to small and marginal farmers in the state. This issue was raised with State Bank of India officers here today on the occasion of signing of Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Lakshya Food India and State Bank of India (SBI), an official release said. The...

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...