Buoyed by its success in increasing pulses production in India through effective implementation of National Food Security Mission (NFSM), the government is likely to bring production of millet and fodder under the mission’s ambit in the forthcoming Budget. The programme which will be on the lines of accelerated pulses production programme (A3P) is expected to be operationalised in the next one year. Officials said this programme, which would be part of NFSM...

India’s rulers have found a new vocation – maligning environmentalists and questioning the very idea of regulating industry for pollution. Thus, faced with criticism of Lavasa, an artificial gated city of the super-rich near Pune, in which his family has invested crores, Agriculture Minister, Sharad Pawar, lashed out at well-known activist Medha Patkar and other “vested interests” for obstructing this “pioneering” project. Lavasa’s promoters built the project without seeking environmental clearance...

Activists hope that a popular agitation against the setting up of a factory to manufacture asbestos products in the eastern Bihar state will result in a nationwide ban on the large-scale import into this country of the deadly mineral fibre. Following six months of agitation against the setting up of the factory in the Chainpur-Bishunpur area of Bihar’s Muzzaffarpur district, state chief minister Nitish Kumar sought to lay blame on the...

The state needs to pull up its socks as far as implementation of the Centre’s ambitious rural job scheme is concerned. That’s what the report card of Jharkhand National Rural Employment Guarantee Act Watch — a joint forum of NGOs that keeps a tab on rural employment — says. At a daylong meeting today, members of the watchdog observed that the state needed concerted efforts and political will to effectively implement works...

We’re in the midst of a global food crisis — the second in three years. World food prices hit a record in January, driven by huge increases in the prices of wheat, corn, sugar and oils. These soaring prices have had only a modest effect on U.S. inflation, which is still low by historical standards, but they’re having a brutal impact on the world’s poor, who spend much if not...