In the midst of irregular monsoons affecting agriculture, a new report shows stagnation in the state of irrigation infrastructure. The recent report entitled Infrastructure Statistics 2014 (Third Issue) by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) has provided information that despite the rise in expenditure on irrigation infrastructure, there has been no substantial improvement in the gross irrigation potential utilized*. Athough expenditure on irrigation has increased from Rs. 36561.64 crores...

-The Economic Times NEW DELHI: The risk of losing room to raise the minimum support price for rice possibly prompted India's hard stand at the WTO in July, which led to the collapse of trade talks. The farm subsidy notification made by India at the WTO earlier this week shows that the subsidy to rice risks exceeding the WTO permissible limit. If there is no relief on the procurement issue, the government...

-Economic and Political Weekly   Through a two-way process comprising text analysis of the policy framework of the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan programme and analysis of empirical data collected through interaction with policy implementers, teachers, students, experts, etc, this article puts forth the argument that urban education system has failed partly because of the inability of the implementers to plan, manage and facilitate the programme. Monika Banerjee (banerjie77@gmail.com) is with the Zakir Husain Centre...

-Deccan Chronicle Hyderabad: Organic products now cost 15 to 35 per cent more than other products as supply is not being distributed uniformly. Storage cost too is high and certification for growing these products, per acre costs Rs 50,000. Farmers are now demanding government support for a resource system. According to experts, there are currently two major reasons why organic products are expensive. The distribution of production is not uniform. For instance,...

-The Hindu Business Line To address the water crisis, recycling plants can work as PPPs and industry should switch to using such water Some stark facts: India has 18 per cent of world's population with only 4 per cent of total usable water resources. Annual per capita availability of water has declined by 15 per cent in the past 10 years and is estimated to fall to as low as 1140 m3/year...