Pawar’s Report Card The Negatives     Per capita availability of cereals and pulses has fallen in last eight years     No improvement in irrigation, 60% of agriculture still dependent on monsoons     Farmers growing cereals, sugarcane, oilseeds and pulses assured higher MSP, but majority don't benefit     Production up, but not productivity. Farmer suicides are on the rise.     Poor market advisory on exports being misused to buy cheaply from farmers and make profits overseas     Pawar...

States to be urged to adopt resolutions for pension to elderly Following up its five-day dharna here, the Pension Parishad has decided to intensify political mobilisation for pressing its demand for universal old age pension. Several political leaders addressed the demonstrators during the dharna and the Parishad leaders called on President Pratibha Patil to elicit her support. On Saturday, a delegation will call on UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi, who is also the chairperson...

-The Hindu Jairam to write to Prime Minister seeking more coverage The demand for universal pension for elderly persons got a fillip with President Pratibha Patil on Thursday extending her support and Union Minister for Rural Development Jairam Ramesh deciding to write to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to restructure the pension scheme to cover more beneficiaries. Ms. Patil made a personal contribution of Rs. 15,000 to the Pension Parishad which is staging a...

-The Pioneer The super-vision mission team of World Bank, with the help of District Poverty Initiatives Project, appreciated the self-confidence, vision and awareness of rural women trying to earn their livelihood. Through innovative initiative of the project, team members spread awareness about the solar energy lantern and mobile charging stations among the rural people. The establishment of solar energy lantern and mobile charging stations is being done through regeneration committee set up...

The government has taken exception to the `biases' in the United NationsDevelopment Programme's (UNDP) Asia Pacific Human Development report, titled, One Planet, which was released on Thursday. UNDP, required to play a neutral role in international governance, has recommended that India and other countries in the Asia Pacific region take greater responsibility to reduce emissions and warned that 'inclusive growth' would increase emissions, a trade-off that India cannot afford. Pointing...