The weak monsoon may hurt crop output more than expected as rainfall has been much lower than the national average in the breadbasket states that account for the biggest share of India’s agricultural output - Less Rains in Key States may Hurt Farm Output

Spending just an additional . 5,000 per head on skills will make unemployed youth employable - Who Should Pay for Skilling?

Economy : India took a belated but bold step to provide universal education by enacting the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009 - Strengthen the melting pot

The agriculture ministry must take adequate steps to plan strategies - Gearing up to face the challenges of a possible drought

Economy : Edible oils are being imported from Malaysia and Indonesia.State and central governments are trying to bring down the quantum of edible oil imports by encouraging oil palm cultivation on a massive scale in the state. Plans afoot to boost oil palm production

Science and Technology : The Government is gearing up to prepare a time-bound action plan for development of offshore wind energy especially in the coastal states of Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Karnataka - Plans afoot to develop offshore wind energy

‘Reduce, reuse, recycle’ is the mantra in the increasingly eco-conscious world today - A career out of waste

Economy : Headline inflation eased a tad to 7.25 per cent in June from 7.55 per cent in May following a marginal cooling in prices of manufactured goods - Inflation eases a bit

A journey into the global history of cotton textiles reveals at each step how significantly it eventually led to the door of Industrial Revolution - How cotton caught on

Just a Little bit of discipline and investing money regularly would help you create a large Corpus for your retirement in a few years of time - Wake up and plan for your Future Retirement now

Economy : The series of measures announced by the Reserve Bank of India just before Pranab Mukherjee laid down office as the Finance Minister were aimed at encouraging forex inflows, and thereby reverse the downtrend in the value of the rupee vis-à-vis the dollar and other currencies. Soon enough, it was felt that other measures were needed to revive the economy - Reversing growth recession

Economy : Government’s policy of price control is a major disincentive for capacity addition - Nutrient-based subsidy in urea, a must

Agriculture - Kharif sowing down despite better rain and Status at Reservoirs

Bad policy compounds the impact of poor rainfall. But India has still got enough buffer against erratic rains - Even if Monsoon’s Bad, GDP Impact No More Than 0.25%

From smarter official response systems to availability of better technology and information flow, India’s capacity to handle a drought has improved vastly - 5 Reasons Why Even a Drought Won’t Matter

Agriculture - 56 pc of MGNREGS wages in Bengal delayed, no delays in TN, northeastern states - PM wants audits to check rural job scheme wage delays

Agriculture - Containing the impact of deficient rain requires proactive due diligence rather than big-ticket policy actions - Chasing a drought

Economy : In most developed — and many developing — countries today, a 12-year school education and universal health coverage (UHC) are the two primary responsibilities of the state. India has failed miserably on both counts - Take this patient to ICU

Health - Countering Obesity with Drugs has always Proved difficult Due to Nasty Side Effects.Why are they so Hard to make? - Fat Lot of Good

Why is Indian Media Suddenly nervous about its own power?Why is it promoting the idea of its 'regulation'? - Shoot me the Messenger

Some startling facts about living standards revealed - The McWages index

Economy : Low growth and high inflation will hit consumption across all income groups - A Dangerous Mix

Science and Technology - The rupee devaluation over last year has exacerbated problems for an industry that has no manufacturing capabilities but instead assembles imported components - Hard knocks for Indian hardware

Economy : Giving in to public protest against privatisation of water services and indiscriminate pricing of water, the modified national water policy provides for subsidy to the poor but at the same time emphasises the need for subjecting water to allocation and pricing on ‘economic principles’ - Water policy against ‘heavy under-pricing’ of power for farmers

Economy - India's Budgeting must be measured up to international best Practices.A Fiscal Responsibility Council Headed by Prime Minister needs to be constituted - The Fiscal Imperative

Economy : India’s backbone comes from its indomitable infrastructure which has undergone massive changes in the past decade.These changes were owing to the rapid growth rate of the Indian economy and fast paced urbanisation - Indian infrastructure – pillar of progress and strength

The heart of this collection of essays is a powerful historiographical introduction to the study of the Indian village. Explaining how the Indian village became a focal point of study for social anthropologists, the introduction brings together critiques of colonial notions of the self-sufficient village community and idealised models of caste and varna - Life and times of the Indian village

Economy : The slowdown is characterised by a sharp deceleration in investment growth on the demand side and in agriculture, manufacturing and construction on the supply side, alongside high and unprecedented current account deficits.The growth model has come undone

More and more farmers in East Godavari district are shifting to aquaculture if the steady increase in the extent of fish tanks as well as the quantum of inland fishing in the district is any indication - East Godavari farmers shifting to aquaculture

Economy : With standardised rules of globalisation failing, thinking and acting local is the only way to sustain ourselves  - Globalisation Takes a Dive

Economy - Overheating Government's limited fiscal space to ease supply-side problems the main reason - India out spaces developing world in inflation rankings 

Long Term Investing is not just About Generating High eturns from Stock movement but it is also about constant Inflows that it can generate in form of Dividends - Do not Ignore Value Investing 

Socio Economy : A recent study has brought to fore a paradoxical situation in the state of health of Indians where lifestyle diseases like heart ailments are fast overtaking poverty-related killers like diarrhoea and tuberculosis - It’s a Catch-22 situation

Science & Technology : Biotechnology is an efficient scientific solution to increase crop productivity, enhance income for small farmers’ - ICRISAT chief for cultivation of GM crops

Health - Insulin or oral medication? Diabetics often fear the needle and convincing patients takes up much of doctor's time - Needle of Doubt

Given the Growth the Cities Are Witnessing,there is a dire Need for Good Rental Accommodation. A Change in Mindset and Strong Policy  action are necessary to See movement in his direction - Rent only Housing:Next Paradigm

Economy - Data for the last 30 Years Suggest that the most important Variable Effecting GDP Growth is Real Interest Rates - Ban Elevator Economics

Economy - Fixing Exchange Rates only Tackles the Symptoms of the Brewing Bop Crisis - Losing the Balance

The delay in arrival of monsoons, severe shortage of coal supplies to thermal power plants, fall in generation from hydro power projects and the rising demand of a growing economy have all led to very bleak power situation in the country - Power scenario looks grim

Agriculture : Hopes of good kharif cultivation among the farming community in the State have been receding in the absence of a good monsoon and the water levels in major reservoirs down to alarming levels.Dry spell hits kharif cultivation

Economy -India Needs more imaginative Governance for its Urban densities - It takes a City

Economy - India need to Change its focus from Reforming Labour Law's Exit Provisions to Enhancing the Supply of Labour- The Great Indian Labour Trick

Economy - There is no Sign of recession, But we should Address the Current Growth-Inflation Dynamics with Urgency - Is India Moving Towards a Stagflation-Like situation?

Rainfall 31% Below Normal;Kharif Crops Still Safe 

Economy : The Central Government has decided to set up a venture capital fund of Rs.2,000 crore which will promote research and development (R&D) in the pharmaceutical sector - Govt. to set up Rs.2,000-crore venture fund for R&D in pharma

Economy : Aadhaar and MGNREGA are made for each other - Debate on Aadhaar and MGNREGA

Agriculture : With the monsoon playing hide and seek, paddy transplantation is going at a snail’s pace in East Godavari district.Konaseema farmers mull ‘yield down’ - Paddy cultivation

Economy : Govt working on a policy to allow traders to meet export obligations even during domestic crisis - India Rethinks Ban on Foodgrain Export

Staggering patterns of rainfall casting a shadow on prospects of yield - Truant monsoon gives cotton farmers the jitters

The proportion of women on corporate boards and executive committees in Asian countries is strikingly low,compared to Europe and the US. On an average, women account for 6 per cent of the seats in corporate boards and 8 per cent in executive panels in the 10 markets surveyed - WOMEN MATTER:AN ASIAN PERSPECTIVE

Economy : The share of the worst (Big 5) states (Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh) as a percentage of total farm suicides, is now around 64 per cent - Farm suicides

Industry-institution linkage is crucial to improving engineering education. The AICTE-CII exercise aims at mapping the best practices being followed towards this end - Setting a new quality matrix

Agriculture : Monsoons Effect on Farm Sector - How monsoon effect Indian Economy?

Economy - India's Mutual Fund Industry is in Trouble - STATSGURU

Health Care : The size of the Indian healthcare delivery market was Rs.2.6 lakh crore in 2011-12. We expect it to almost double to Rs.4.7 lakh crore in 2016-17 - Indian healthcare Sector

Precarious power situation, row over water, murky controversies over land allotments and much more is hardly the stuff that can attract investors - Is the industrial environment healthy in A.P.?

Build Your Skills, Not Your Resume... Do Real Work.To lead in this fast, connected, competitive world, you can’t just rely on who you are or the degree you hold. You need the ability to communicate authentically - Leadership

If nature had preserved itself, earth would still be molten lava or a frozen desert or dinosaur’s den. Man isn’t the first or the last of earth’s inhabitants and its extinction is part of earth’s natural evolution, says Rohit Saran - Why Environment Protection is Anti-Nature

Economy : At $78.2 billion, it stands at 4.2 per cent of GDP - Current account deficit swells

Exclusive extracts from A.P.J. Abdul Kalam’s memoir of his presidency - A difficult journey, some difficult decisions

Economy : The International Labour Organisation has adopted a new global standard on the creation of a social security floor aimed at stimulating aggregate demand and fostering social cohesion - Responsibility to protect

Economy : In spite of the recent downturn in mining industry, there is something to cheer about for miners and consumers with commissioning of few iron ore beneficiation plants in Bellary and Barbil, says Sabyasachi Mishra, MD Allmineral Asia Pvt Ltd - Future of Mining

Agriculture : Amidst reports of abandoning paddy cultivation due to high labour cost and labour scarcity in Kerala, records maintained by a leading paddy farmers’ group named Avunjikad Padashekhara Samithy in Malappuram District point to a saving of Rs. 63,375 on cost of transplanting in an area of 15 acres for paddy - Advantage mechanisation and women’s group approach

Beware of the white elephants that are giant international summits,which cannot reflect a changing world - Rio+20 = almost zero

Health - As many as 260 out of the top 300 brands are pre-2005 vintage - Pharma brands: Old is gold

Agriculture : The State Government, through the Department of Agriculture, is popularising the concept of ‘custom hiring centres’ as part of achieving the objective of farm mechanisation through upgradation of technology for raising agriculture and horticulture crops - ‘custom hiring centres’

Economy- The new policy measures on capital inflows are dreadful and dangerous - Not all capital inflows are welcome

Science & Technology : A silent revolution is under way in our operating rooms and hospitals – instead of invasive surgical procedures with large incisions, surgeons are moving towards minimally invasive procedures with miniaturised surgical instruments through tiny ports or keyholes in the human body. How, you may ask - Revolutionising surgery with robotics

Health - With a wave of drugs falling off the patent cliff in the US, Indian generic drug makers are scrambling to capitalize on this unique opportunity - Indian pharma eyes US generic gold rush

Vocational training— seems to have lost its importance. This has led to the widening gap between the supply and demand for skilled manpower across various industries. This shortage of skills has translated directly into unemployment among an increasing number of graduates who pass out every year and are forced to be re-trained in order to become marketable - Significance of vocational education

Hiring interviews are part of a company's recruitment process that seeks to provide it needed talent from the marketplace - Doing interviews the right way

Self awareness and analysis are two key factors to assist us in making the right choices.Therefore, a person needs to be aware of the issue, analyse the pros and cons to arrive at an amicable solution - Better decision-making

Economy : Urbanisation took centre-stage at last week’s Rio+20 conference for good reasons. Cities collectively consume 75 per cent of world’s natural resources, generate 50 per cent of waste and emit about 70 per cent of the greenhouse gas - Greening the urban jungle

Economy : Within a few weeks of “Aadhaar-enabled” payments of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme wages being initiated in Jharkhand, earlier this year, glowing accounts of this experiment started appearing in the national media - Experiments with Aadhaar

Socio - Economy :The book is an attempt to study the socio-economic and historical factors surrounding child labour and place them within a rhetorical framework relating to capitalist modes of production- All work, a little pay, and no school

Economy - Largest Depreciation in Brazil Followed by India - Rupee on a Free Fall

At Rio +20, the Developing World Reclaimed Lost Ground,But Nobody Committed to Credible Action - Green Economy as Platitude

Economy : FINANCIAL SCENE The RBI has made it amply clear that monetary policy action, at any given point, will be determined by its reading of the macro-economic situation, especially inflation and growth - In a catch-22 situation

Economy - Comparison of GDP Growth Between India and Pakistan - STATSGURU

Economy : At a time when the headline issues are economic growth and financial crises, few countries would willingly commit themselves to new treaties and conventions - Rio’s unfinished agenda

Health - New Research Suggests that nurturing the microbial ecosystem within our bodies may Fight off Infectious Diseases with Harmful Side Effects and Even Help in Treatment of Disorders like Obesity and Diabetes - The Body's Microbial Garden

Socio Economy - Reforms in Education Sector, the move towards a single Exam for entry into Engineering Colleges and the Investment Sentiment in the Country - IIT System

Education - College Entrance Exams Should test for potential,not Achievement, or it risks dividing Society Further - Gates or barriers?

Economy : The Chief Economic Adviser to the Ministry of Finance, Kaushik Basu, took over the Jury Chair for the Infosys Prize for Social Sciences in April. He spoke to V. Sridhar recently about the need to invest and nurture excellence in fundamental research in all branches of knowledge. The media in India, he says, pays far less attention to the sciences than those in the advanced countries. Excerpts - ‘Pursuit of knowledge is an end in itself’

A Lancet study reports that suicide is the second highest cause of death among the young - Invisible health risk that stalks India’s youth

Economy - India’s surplus capacity in oil refining is set to grow exponentially and become a major foreign exchange earner. Can it be sustained? - Refineries and the boon of over-capacity

Agriculture : Farmers suffer due to lack of water for irrigation.The agricultural operations have not picked up in the district though the kharif season has begun - Kharif operations yet to take off

Economy -  Performance Report of Minimal Support Price Increase - Higher Minimum Support Price fails to create greener pastures

Economy - If RBI has Kept the Interest rates unchanged, it is to Cushion the Volatile Rupee - Cut Can Hurt

The ‘American way of life’ – and, for that matter, the way of life
everywhere – has to be up for negotiation at Rio - What Rio needs is responsibility

Economy - Cyclical ups and downs are no basis for an investment downgrade but it is time to address the deterioration in domestic macros - Are Standard & Poor and Fitch overreacting?

Scoio - Economy : why is engineering so expensive here? Why is it often many times more expensive than in Australia, my home? - The Enigma of Indian Engineering

Economy : Considering the unstable economic conditions and the low GDP growth, the hiring activity has shown an overall positive movement in the month of May - Cautious approach to hiring

Economy - Goal Posts Shifted,RBI Scores Self Goals - Inflation

Economy : Everywhere around the world, energy is a woman’s issue.The UN has declared 2012 as the Year of Sustainable Energy for All - Sustaining Women

Economy - Using robust, innovative technology, good governance and a focus on execution — not market share — this micro finance institution has blazed a trail for others to follow - How Janalakshmi got to the top of the Micro Finance Institution heap

Economy :  The new law to protect children from sexual offences, though progressive in many respects, gives cause for concern by defining children as below 18 years  - The Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Bill

Economy - India's officialdom must turn to the diaspora to fund the Economy's Addiction to Foreign Money - Time for Bonds to 'Reawaken India'

Economy : Disappointment among market participants at the Reserve Bank of India’s decision to maintain the status quo in its mid-quarter review of credit policy - Rationale for status quo

Economy : The Images and Representation of Rural Women protests the apparently systematic neglect of the rural woman’s experience in the literary canon - Rural Woman