PMO suggests adopting cluster approach to boost food output; FCI asked to enhance storage capacity With the National Food Security Bill set to be introduced in Parliament, the Congress party-LED United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government has taken initiatives to boost the farm sector, including steps to increase the production of pulses and oilseeds. The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), after a meeting on Tuesday to review the agriculture sector, has asked the agriculture...

-The Hindu   “Police should not have taken extreme step of firing” Latha Priyakumar, Member, National Commission for ScheduLED Castes (NCSC), said that the lives of six Dalits could have been saved if police had handLED the agitation in a proper manner. She was visiting Paramakudi and Ramanathapuram to enquire into the police firing at Paramakudi on Thursday. Describing the deaths as very unfortunate, she said the mishandling of the issue had claimed innocent lives. The...

Lack of appropriate services at the healthcare facilities LED to three maternal deaths in one block of Deoghar district of Jharkhand while seven others died due to lack of back up emergency facilities during delivery and mechanisms to deal with postpartum complications. These maternal deaths were reported from Devipur block between march 2010 and February this year.   A Maternal Death Audit conducted by the Network for Enterprise, Enhancement and Development...

The new rural development minister wants to use technology to force states to make payments. Critics suggest that he should fix existing problems first. Jairam Ramesh is not afraid of stirring things up. Sixty days into his stint as the new Rural Development Minister, Ramesh, he has unveiLED what he calls NREGA 2.0, a reform package that he feels would make the Rs 40,000 crore programme actually work. Ramesh has put together...

Nitish orders suspension of investigating officer, two other policemen In yet another incident of police brutality, policemen mercilessly beat up several persons, including women, in Bihar's Nalanda district on Thursday. The incident occurred when a large crowd trooped in front of the Noorsarai police station to protest against the recent disappearance of a young woman Sushma Kumari alias Reena Devi, who is the panchayat secretary. The mob alleged that the investigating officer (IO)...