Agriculture & Rural Development

Nearly Rs. 3,200 crore in wages were paid to workers in the unorganized sector during the lockdown, bringing much-needed relief to workers. Vipul Mittra, additional chief secretary, Labour and Employment department, Gujarat, said that the department undertook a massive outreach exercise to reach out to thousands of employers and to ensure payment of full wages...

Underscoring the importance of smallholder farmers to India’s pandemic recovery, the Walmart Foundation today announced two new grants as part of a commitment made in September 2018 to invest US$25 million (approximately Rs. 180 crores) over five years in improving farmer livelihoods in India. The new funding, which totals $4.5 million, will allow nonprofits...

Proteon Pharmaceuticals, a biotechnology company and leader in bacteriophage technology for livestock farming, the parent company of Vetphage Pharmaceuticals Pvt Ltd, announced a strategic partnership with DuPont Animal Nutrition in distribution of Proteon’s innovative bacteriophage solutions. The aim of the partnership is to bring Proteon’s bacteriophage technology to poultry producers in selected countries, with the...

Welspun Foundation for Health & Knowledge, the CSR arm of Welspun Group has been providing essential medical equipment to Primary Healthcare Centres (PHC) as a part of its effort to combat Covid-19 in Vapi. With an objective of providing better health care facility, under the ‘Village Connect’ project Welspun Foundation reached out to five...

Traditional Indian banking culture can best be described as one of "going to the bank to update my passbook", or where rural wage labourers and day earners simply hold onto daily cash with no way to deposit it into a centralized, electronic system. But the world's largest digital financial inclusion programme is changing all of...

Farmers are the true unsung heroes, who despite the tough times, have kept going about their jobs, without seeking praise or pat on their backs, bringing joy to millions in the process and ensuring food on the table. In the face of the current challenging times, farmers across the country have continued to work relentlessly....

Bollywood star Salman Khan has joined hands with the Government of Maharashtra and Elan Foundation (philanthropic arm of commercial realty developer Elan Group) to rebuild homes destroyed by the floods in Kolhapur, Maharashtra. The 2019 floods affected 223 villages in Kolhapur and displaced around 28,897 people in the district. In February 2020, Elan Group announced...

Water security is the adaptive capacity to safeguard the sustainable availability of, access to, and safe use of water for health, livelihoods, ecosystems, and productive economies. In light of the prevailing COVID-19 pandemic, the importance of water for overall human development is even more relevant. Recognizing the need to build a timely discourse and action...

Farming is not an easy vocation. Apart from backbreaking work, it involves a lot of life-threatening risks. Even after those risks, the results are never certain, for the yield of agriculture heavily relies upon the weather and environmental conditions, which can never be predicted. For example, recently excessive rainfall in the Kutch region of...

Rise Against Hunger India (RAHI) stepped in during the lockdown and supported migrants with nutritious fortified food over the past 5 months. However, the root cause of livelihood insecurity in their native places which pushed these vulnerable groups to undertake migration to other cities still remained unaddressed. Even the small and marginal farmers often...

Looking back at 100 days since Cyclone Amphan made landfall in West Bengal, SEEDS (Sustainable Environment and Ecological Development Society) a leading humanitarian organization welcomes Panchami Purkayi to her newly built house in the 24 South Parganas district. She along with her husband and son (both with disabilities) took refuge in a nearby primary...

India's single largest iron ore producer is public sector undertaking NMDC Limited. Short for National Mineral Development Corporation, it has an incontestably large presence in the states of Karnataka and Chhattisgarh. Apart from mining iron ore, the PSU also mines diamonds, minerals and magnesite. It has been around for more than 60 years, with...