Media Monitor
Agriculture Industry
Former RAW chief is now paddy-shrimp farmer in his ancestral Kerala villageedit
Twelve years after retiring as Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW) chief, PK Hormis Tharakan has a new assignment for himself, this time in agriculture field. Tharakan who is a resident of Kerala is nowadays busy in ensuring the crows don’t prey on shrimp and fish in his agriculture fields in Alappuzha district, thanks to his decision to take up paddy-cum-shrimp farming.
Opinion | India has to bite the bullet to fix its water crisisedit
On 17 June, Amitabh Kant, chief executive officer (CEO) of India’s policy think tank, NITI Aayog, took to the social media platform Twitter to join the ongoing debate over water scarcity. “Water is the biggest challenge India faces. India has 16% of d world’s popln but only 4% of the world’s water resources. Ground water accounts for 63% of our irrigation needs. We need to do sustainable ground water usage, recharge aquifers, restore water bodies and reuse waste water. (sic)”
Adapt or perishedit
Secretary General of the United Nations Antonio Guterres believes that climate change, which is pervasive across the globe and is caused by global warming, is progressing faster than we are and if we do not take appropriate action by 2020, disastrous consequences await people and all natural systems that sustain us. Climate change impacts all facets of human civilisation — health, family income, livelihood, security, agricultural production (crops, livestock, fisheries) and international trade.
Labour reforms: No one knows the size of India’s informal workforce, not even the govtedit
Providing legal and social protection to the informal or unorganised sector workers — one of the key objectives of the labour law reforms being planned may be easier said than done. The challenges are many and the government seems least prepared.
Opportunity knocks for Indian agricultureedit
India has emerged as a major exporter of several agricultural commodities, and has also been diversifying production towards high value pulses, fruits, vegetables, and livestock products.
Budget
Budget 2019: Developing non-farm sector crucial to provide additional income to farmersedit
Union Budget 2019-20: In the recent budget the honourable Finance Minister emphasized the need to boost the rural sector of our country and a separate section in her budget speech was devoted to rural India. Within the rural economy the state of the agricultural sector, which provides the largest share of employment in the country, can never be ignored. In her maiden budget speech, Nirmala Sitharaman has recognised the contribution of our farmers in achieving self-sufficiency in pulses and hoped that a similar result will be achieved for oilseeds as well. In her speech, she also emphasized the zero budget farming model
No budget for farmersedit
If one were to judge the budget by its cover, then the maiden budget of India’s first-full-time woman finance minister fell far short of expectations. It had slogans–from Gaon, Garib aur Kisan, Ease of Living to Naari tu Narayani–and quotes–from Gandhi to Tamil Sangam literature to Urdu couplets–aplenty, but little of substance that one would have expected from a government that won a historic mandate of 353 seats.Grameen Bharat received sufficient attention in the budget but nothing by way of structural reform that could usher in a second green revolution and double farmers’ income.
Budget 2019: Developing non-farm sector crucial to provide additional income to farmersedit
India Budget 2019: Within the rural economy the state of the agricultural sector, which provides the largest share of employment in the country, can never be ignored. In the recent budget the honourable Finance Minister emphasized the need to boost the rural sector of our country and a separate section in her budget speech was devoted to rural India. Within the rural economy the state of the agricultural sector, which provides the largest share of employment in the country, can never be ignored.
Stubble Burning
Here’s how these two 17-year-old girls are fighting Delhi’s infamous air pollutionedit
The two Delhi-based girls have managed to raise over Rs 3.5 lakh in three months in 2018 through this initiative. They used the money to buy machines that can convert stubble into fertiliser, and distributed them to farmers in Jhajjar, Haryana. Apart from providing an eco-friendly solution to eliminate crop residue, the two students also conducted awareness sessions and educated farmers about the harmful effects of stubble burning.