: Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao has instructed officials to prepare a comprehensive agriculture policy for the state with an aim to make the agriculture sector profitable. Rao said he would be talking to farmers through clusters, farmers groups such as Rythu Bandhu Samithis and agriculture officers through a video conference very soon, an official release issued late on Saturday night said. Rao, who held a review on the agriculture department, instructed officials concerned to prepare the comprehensive agriculture policy and stressed the need for everything to happen in tune with it. "The government should decide on which crops the farmers should cultivate. Planning should be done in such a way that crops should be cultivated based on the food needs of people in the state and the crops, which are in demand in the markets in other regions," Rao said. Alternative crops should be identified and suggested to farmers and cultivation done on these lines, he said,

The Education Bill 2003 is well-intended, but its implication for contemporary Indian conditions must be examined first, says Sankrant Sanu.

The UGC has given the green signal to a plethora of value-added, job-oriented diploma programmes in colleges and varsities. An Education World report.

While politicians label it 'revolutionary' legislation, experts feel that the draft bill on the fundamental right to education ignores important issues, such as education for children below six and above 14. It also dilutes the meaning of 'rights', leaving the door open for the government to not meet its obligations. Deepa A reports.

Numerous laws and rules at the Central as well as State levels are in place to assess the extent of child labour in the country, and to tackle it. Court directives too lend a hand. But CAG reports show that those responsible for carrying out this reform are indifferent to the vast tragedy. Himanshu Upadhyaya reports.

Despite laws abolishing the inhuman practice of manual scavenging, over a million dalits in 'superpower India' are caught in a vortex of severe social and economic exploitation. Even the central government pleaded lack of resources in failing to implement the law effectively, writes Sunil Kuksal.

Why are the more liberal practices of Muslim citizens only called upon during times of negative perception of Islam itself? Why should we then not take the liberalism of the average Khan to be real representation of Muslims at all times? The India Together editorial.

Regulation that is working well, as well as others that plainly speak of misgovernance, are both instructive; the road forward lies in separating regulation from the government, and vesting this instead in independent and autonomous bodies created by Parliament. The India Together editorial.

While endless rounds of complaint and criticism have been seen in every arena, this has not led the public to demand that the size of government be reduced. How long will this last? The India Together editorial.

Aarti Madhusudhan looks at volunteers, in this third part of her series on non-profit governance.

Schools are meant for making better citizens out of our children but in the Dewas district of Madhya Pradesh, they are forging and reinforcing caste-bondages instead. Inclusive education seems a far cry in the villages of Dewas, reports Shuriah Niazi.

The shortage of girls is more than a sociological concern; it demands that we change the mindset of doctors and clients to create a socio-cultural milieu that is conducive for the girl child’s survival, says Dr. Vibhuti Patel.

What is history, and who are its worthy subjects? The Sound and Pictures Archives for Research on Women preserves women's voices from the past and present.

Women are making a mark in a profession almost entirely dominated by men. Shoma Chatterji talks to the women idol makers of Kumartuli to find out about their struggle and success.

The task of cleansing our polity of crime and corruption is best done by people of compassion, empathy, humility and deep caring, people who remain fair and non partisan even when dealing with those they hate, writes Madhu Purnima Kishwar.

Corruption in India has attained humongous proportions despite continual but largely erratic movements since independence to tackle this menace. Shankar Jaganathan ponders on whether the recent betting scandal in cricket could catalyse an effective outcome in the fight against political corruption.

For seven-year-old Sandhya and her siblings, totally dependant on their mother who ekes out a living by making beedis, the state government's relief package, announced nearly 18 months ago, is simply not enough. Many more suffer the same fate. P N Venugopal reports.

An ongoing study of school textbooks in four states has found stereotypes and biases in Gujarat's textbooks. The Social Studies textbook for standard five has nine stories on mythology masquerading as history. Deepa A reports.

Kalpana Sharma reflects on the occasion of the International Fortnight Protesting Violence Against Women and Girls, being observed from November 25 to December 10.

India's support for the Soviet Union ran counter to the traditions of its own national movement. In the same way, the Indian silence on Burma is in sharp contrast to our consistent support for the democratic opposition in apartheid-era South Africa, says Ramachandra Guha.

In response to an earlier op-ed by Leo Saldanha on India Together, Prakash Belawadi argues that many of the points raised by Saldanha in particular, may not be so incriminating after all.

As the government shows Doordarshan's director the door, Prasar Bharati member B G Verghese protests the intrusion by the administration into constitutionally protected domain.

Legislatures around the country are invoking privilege on all sorts of issues, even as the political parties condemn each other's actions to limit press freedom. Sevanti Ninan reports.

The evidence of the pernicious influence of today's mass-media empires is overwhelming. But, lacking a historical consciousness that includes technology, modern India is thoroughly unprepared to tackle the excesses they promote, says Venkatesh R. Iyer.

The System of Rice Intensification, known to increase rice yields significantly merely by following a few simple rules, is spreading throughout Bihar, thanks to an award-winning film that educates farmers. Shoma Chatterji reports.

At Santiniketan, Tagore's presence still inhabits many buildings; the keepers of which buildings are often knowledgeable about his legacy. But the place needs to be de-parochialised to make it once more inclusively Indian, writes Ramachandra Guha.

Character assassination, social and economic ostracisation and even assault, seem to have become the standard responses to all who protest against the culture of violence against women in West Bengal. Shikha Mukerjee reports on the ground realities in the state.

With the 2003-4 budget giving agriculture the go-by, Devinder Sharma outlines five criteria that nation's finance minister must keep in mind while crafting budgetary policy for agriculture.

If you raise the price of your product and offer a discount on the higher price, some people will get taken in by such 'sales'. The WTO has just pulled off this kind of scheme, says Devinder Sharma.

With 60 per cent of India's population directly engaged in agriculture, and another 200 million landless workers indirectly banking on farming, the real stimulus to the economy can come only if the focus shifts to agriculture, says Devinder Sharma.

At a time when the government should be deeply troubled by the coronavirus pandemic and devising long-term health strategies, its inner circles are busy planning the upgrade of Parliament House and the Central Vista. But...

India’s lockdown has been eased by dividing the country into red, orange and green zones, with high, medium and minimal infections so far, and correspondingly tough curbs on economic activity. This can at best be...

President Trump congratulated UFC for restarting the sports world Saturday night after a nearly two-month hiatus. Trump's taped message was played during ESPN's broadcast of the UFC 249 undercard from a fan-free arena in Jacksonville.

French tennis chief Bernard Guidicelli admitted Sunday that Roland Garros, already controversially pushed back four months due to the coronavirus, could be staged behind closed doors.

Former Australia captain Ian Chappell has proposed radical changes in the LBW laws, stating that a batsman should be given out leg before as long as the ball is hitting the stumps irrespective of the spot of its landing and impact.

Umar Akmal, who was found guilty of two charges under the PCB Anti-Corruption Code has refused to divulge details of his two meetings with suspected bookies. According to the source, Akmal had a meeting with two unidentified men in Defence Housing Society in Lahore. The PCB source said Akmal also gave conflicting statements before the Disciplinary Panel hearing on April 27.

Though there is no avian flu outbreak in Tamil Nadu, poultry farmers across the state have taken precautionary measures.

: The Class XII students of the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) schools in Nashik heaved a sigh of relief after the board declared the examination dates on Saturday.

When 'Beta', the movie, was released in 1992, it catapulted Madhuri Dixit to fame as the 'dhak-dhak' girl. But it also raised an old and important question about why men appear to be blind to the fact that their mothers can ever be wrong.

In every other store on the streets leading to the beach in Mamallapuram sit a row or two of Ganeshas, tiny turtles, elephants, reclining Buddhas and scattered stone figurines, all carved by the locals.

Historian Sumathi Ramaswamy’s seminal book The Goddess and the Nation, Mapping Mother India shows how Bharat Mata has been reimagined over the years, going from a benign, giving figure or a tragedienne to a martyr and often an ultra-nationalist warrior.

As solar panels get cheaper, more people are embracing the sun. Some of them are not only reducing their electricity bills, they’re even selling the surplus to the state.

नई दिल्‍ली: दिग्गज बाइक निर्माता कंपनी रॉयल एनफील्ड आमतौर पर अपने बुलेट मॉडल के लिए जानी जाती है। विश्व स्तर पर इस कंपनी ने अपनी एक अलग पहचान बनाई है। इस समय भी कंपनी कई हाई-एंड बाइक्स मॉडल पर काम रही

South Korea's had 18 new cases in 24 hours with all but one of them linked to a 29-year-old man who visited three clubs in Seoul's Itaewon district before testing.