Indian farmers are reluctant to take up organic farming because of the perceived high costs and increased risks over technology-sssisted agiculture, according to a report brought out by the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A). There is also very little information on organic farming practices and effciency, says the study. According to report “India ranks 33r
Omar Abdullah is the wrong man at the wrong place at the wrong time. Don’t count on him to suddenly personify the change that the Kashmiris voted for in the last elections. That seems to be the unfortunate if unavoidable inference from the events of the past couple of months. From here on, it will take nothing short of a miracle to restore public faith in the state government. The history
Even though the government has tried unsuccessfully to pass a Microfinance Bill to provide a regulatory framework for the sector, so far no national policy on financial inclusion has been formulated like the UK government has. Don`t you think in the present times, when financial markets can so deeply affect the economy and the workers, financial inclusion should be a matter of public po
With the deadline for the political parties to express their opinion about the need (or otherwise) for undertaking a caste census coming to an end, the UPA government will now have to take a decision sooner than later. Though in the latter half of the budget session of parliament the issue seemed to have been clinched in favour of those who were seeking a caste census, prime mini
Moreyoung women from India and Bangladesh are migrating illegally than before, says a recent study conducted by the Centre for Social Research. While the some of the reasons - poverty, unemployment -are common with most illegal migrants, irrespective of sex, women also tend to migrate because of abandonment by their families, the report has pointed out. Migration from thes
India is on the terrorists radar and faces threats from several Pakistan based terror groups including Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Jaish-e-Mohammad, and Bangladesh based Harakat-ul-Jihad-i-Islami-Bangladesh, says a new US report. The United States State Department in its Congressionally mandated Country Reports on Terrorism 2009 warned “India remained at risk on the basis of
Remember the brief spat bet-ween Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar and union home minister P Chidambaram? The home minister had accused Nitish Kumar of not doing enough to take on the Maoists. His ire had emanated from the Bihar chief minister’s disinclination to attend the chief ministers’ meet called by him in Kolkata. Nitish Kumar had instead dispatched his top officials. To Chid
I grew up in a middle-class family in Uttar Pradesh. During those days, students all around me had just one aspiration: to make it to the civil services. This burning ambition cut across students pursuing all sorts of courses. I remember even some of the brighter minds at the Indian Institute of Technology competing for civil services. Despite being a student of computer science, I too op
India could be shining. So, says a NCAER-CMCR report A new study done by the NCAER-CMCR estimates that India has more high income households than the low income. The report titled ‘How India Earns, Spends and Saves’ mentioned that there are 46.7 million high income households while the low income households number 41 million. There has been a sharp inc
I still shiver with fear when I recall the traumatic days when I, along with the other male members of my village, had to wake up at 4 am and perform the most terrible, inhuman, unjustified and humiliating forced labour for the army. With kerosene lanterns in our trembling hands, we would report for the “convoy duty”, so called because we were supposed to provide protection to the a
A new study shows that there is a significant increase of Muslim children especially girls entering elementary education programmes in various schools across the country .“The percentage of Muslim girls to total Muslim enrolment in Upper Primary classes is 49.97 percent which is above the national average of 48.04,” said the report. The preliminary data also reveals
Despite the trust deficit, breakdown in talksand confidence-building measures that backfire, most pakistanis want better relations with India. “Roughly seven-in-ten (72 percent) say it is important for relations with India to improve and about three-quarters support increased trade with India and further talks between the two rivals,” says a new survey done by the noted Amer
Despite the fact that India is struggling hard to put her economy back on the 9 percent growth trajectory, it has remained the second fastest growing economy and energy market in the world. While domestically it needs to address both efficiency and fiscal prudence, its international strategy involves a relentless push to diversify suppliers, increase its equity take overseas and try to avoid de
The government assessment on the hosting of the Commonwealth Games in October this year is largely overstated, a new report says and adds that the games will not do much good for the tourism sector. “Mega events have little to do with bolstering tourism, and in fact can have a negative impact,” said Bangalore-based research organisation Equations (Equitable Tourism O
Secularism comes in two editions: the first is your garden variety, vanilla flavour; and let`s call the other critical secularism or sustainable secularism. If you are told that there were riots in some city and before condemning the violence if you need to know which community was at the receiving or which party is in power there, then you are an advocate of the simplified version, a darling o
Intensifying Naxal violence has Gopal Krishna Pillai, the top-most bureaucrat in charge of law and order, on the hot seat. Every other major cause of unrest in the country – and there have been many – adds to his onerous job. In this interview with Sweta Ranjan, Pillai, the home secretary, talks about the centre’s strategy aga
A recently published Airports Council International (ACI) report says that Mumbai`s Chhattrapati Shivaji International Airport is the fourth-best in the world after Seoul`s Gimpo International, Canada`s Vancouver and Taiwan`s Taipei International Airport. Read the report
When I look back on all the events pertaining to the Bhopal gas leak disaster in their synergic perspective, I get inclined to cast verdict on ourselves in words I borrow from G K Chesterton: “These are peoples that have lost the power of astonishment at their own actions….They have grown used to their own unreason; chaos is their cosmos; and the whirlwind is the
“India is fifth worldwide in total existing wind power capacity and is rapidly expanding many forms of rural renewables such as biogas and solar PV,” said United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in its report titled ‘Global Trends in Green Energy 2009’. The report also lauded India’s effort for giving incentives to renewable energy through its m
It’s been five years since the centre launched the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) and sought to change the way India developed and governed its cities. Some cities have availed of funds under this mission. But, as a recent nationwide survey of sanitation facilities across urban centres revealed, India is yet to have even a single clean, green city. In an intervie
