The mass migration of farmers moving to urban India is becoming a worrisome trend, said planners at a seminar in the Indian Capital. “Many peasants want to leave agriculture, sell land and migrate to cities,” Arvind Mayaram, Additional Secretary and financial advisor to the Ministry of Rural Development told the India Economic Summit of the World Economic Forum on Monday. Seventy per cent of India’s 1.1 billion people currently live in villages,...

The opening and closing ceremonies received wide acclaim but left many citizens like me a bit terrified and confused. Now that the terms of inquiry into the conduct of the Commonwealth Games have been extended, let us hope that the process of probe will be more open than was decision-making for the CWG. Let us also hope that the review will cover the opening and closing ceremonies as well, both in...

The Ekta Gramin Praja Vichar Manch, who are fighting for their land which the state government has proposed to acquire for NH-8 expansion in Vadodara district, has decided to intensify their protest after the concerned departments reportedly ignored their woes. Sources said about 150 farmers from villages like Bil, Ranoli, Padamla, Vemali, Dumaad, Sama fear to lose their fertile land if the government plans to move forward with their plan to...

Farmers at Tappal in Aligarh are regrouping themselves to launch an agitation in support of their demand of increase in the rate of compensation for land acquisition to construct a township along the Yamuna Expressway. These farmers are those whose land has not been acquired as yet. They are demanding rates equal to Noida for their land. On the other hand, farmer leaders alleged arm-twisting by the police and district...

Himachal Pradesh has now brought wheat and barley crops under an insurance scheme to protect them from adverse climatic conditions, an official statement said Sunday. The National Agricultural Insurance Scheme will cover wheat and barley crops too across the state during the 2010-11 rabi season, said the statement. Earlier, maize, paddy, potato and ginger crops were covered. Likewise, the government last year initially launched an apple crop insurance scheme in Shimla and...