Agriculture & Rural Development

World Food Day 2020 falls on the 75th anniversary of Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) today. There is more buzz surrounding this day than usual. For one, the World Food Programme (WFP) bagged the Nobel Peace Prize this week. The award-winning WFP is the food assistance branch of the United Nations, fighting hunger and...

Talwandi Sabo Power Limited (TSPL), a wholly owned subsidiary of Vedanta Limited and the largest thermal power plant in Punjab, won the Greentech CSR award for outstanding achievement in the promotion of sustainable agriculture, at an online award ceremony. TSPL’s CSR project ‘Navi Disha’, benefits over 1100 farmers from 26 villages in the company’s periphery,...

Marking the completion of a decade of sustainability reporting, Coca-Cola India today released its Sustainability Update for the year 2019-20. In line with the Company’s principle of ‘building sustainable communities as foundations for sustainable businesses’, the sustainability report showcases Coca-Cola’s commitment towards its purpose to ‘Refresh the world and make a difference’, and is...

“India has made tremendous progress in last 6 years in achieving all the important SDG targets. The government is committed to give every house potable tap water by 2024," said Prakash Javadekar, Union Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, during his opening speech at the Sustainable Development Goals Summit 2020. Dignitaries and speakers gathered...

Axis Bank, India’s third largest private sector bank, has joined Bayer’s Better Life Farming initiative in India to provide enhanced and holistic financial solutions to smallholder farmers and rural farming communities. Through the partnership, Axis Bank will offer a wide range of end-to-end financial solutions and services like affordably priced loans, deposits, withdrawals, payments etc....

India’s second-largest public sector bank, Punjab National Bank (PNB) commenced the Phase-3 of its nationwide CSR campaign to create awareness about COVID-19 and provide prevention materials. The campaign titled “Jai Jawan Jai Kisan” will honour ex-servicemen and farmers through its rural and semi-urban branches in 662 districts, across India. In the third phase, PNB senior...

The ongoing pandemic has evoked multiple discussions, which alluded to developing a rapid recovery plan for building long-term resilience. In this regard, Suresh Prabhu, Member of Parliament, said, “The pandemic has reinforced the links between health, environment and the economy. The ongoing crisis also demonstrated that governments and individuals can come together and initiate...

Hindustan Zinc, a Vedanta Group Company, is one of the world's largest and India's only integrated producer of Zinc-Lead and Silver. Securing water assets is of utmost importance to Hindustan Zinc and integral to its commitment towards sustainable development. For this reason, HZL has endorsed the commitment of water stewardship through the CEO Water...

Keeping in line with its CSR goal to help the farming communities thrive, global agriculture company, Corteva Agriscience has partnered with local governments and non-profit organizations in India to ensure the health and safety of farmers during the pandemic. Through CSR partnerships with non-government organizations such as PRADAN, Sewa Bharati and CHD Group, Corteva was...

India was on a slow yet steady trajectory towards sustainable development, with NITI Aayog acting as the planning and monitoring body. COVID-19 swept in uninvited and became the biggest obstacle to global and national development. It's a case of two steps forward, one step back. Statistics already showed our lack of preparedness for Zero...

Artificial intelligence in agriculture and allied activities is having its moment in the sun. At a time when the whole world is disrupted by COVID-19 and social distancing is the norm, electronic mandis, for example, could offer an excellent way for transactions between farmers and customers in the post-COVID world. The e-mandi concept has...

The pandemic has affected the lives of millions of people worldwide. The various phases of lockdown have made it worse, especially for the people in rural areas. However, this did not stop BlueConch Technologies from fulfilling their corporate social responsibility (CSR). Team members from BlueConch Technologies went an extra mile and decided to celebrate their...