AGRI BUSINESS

Indian Agriculture : Role of Technology

-- Tushar Pandey

The use of Global Information Systems (GIS), remote sensing and precision farming, hi-tech dairy farming, etc. in agriculture has not yet gained popularity. Therefore, there is the need to introduce hi-tech agriculture in Indian farms so that it could shift itself from partially commercial agriculture to fully commercial agriculture.

© 2007 IUP . All Rights Reserved

AGRI BUSINESS

Indian Agriculture : Weathering the Slump

-- N Janardhan Rao and V Ratna

Indian economy has transformed into a vibrant, rapidly growing consumer market with increasing purchasing power. However, the slow growth of agriculture is a serious concern for policy makers as two-thirds of the country's population depend on rural employment for their livelihood. Govinda Junghare, a farmer from Maharashtra committed suicide because he could not escape the greedy moneylenders who were exploiting him and his family. The story is not unusual. The Govinda episode indicates the miserable life of the peasantry. More than 150,000 helpless farmers, all over the country, have committed suicide as the last resort, in the last decade and a half.

© 2007 IUP . All Rights Reserved

AGRI BUSINESS

Contract Farming : A New Hope

-- Sharavari Kulkarni and Manjunatha AV

Contract farming can uplift the local economy by increasing the farmer's income through better farm practices, better price, linking them to global market, and updating the technological information. In the era of trade liberalization, all sectors including agriculture are undergoing several reforms. Some influential outcomes of trade liberalization are deregulation of domestic market and openings and expansion of world market. Changes in food policy, trends of High Value Food (HVF) are some of the potential outcomes of the liberalizations.

© 2007 IUP . All Rights Reserved

AGRI BUSINESS

Indian Economic Growth : Can it Translate into Rural Prosperity?

-- Suresh Chandra Babu

The farming community in India was not fully mainstreamed in the recent economic growth. It is a shame that the growth of agriculture, a vital sector for poverty reduction, remains slow.Rural society and agriculture will continue to play an important role in sustaining the recent economic growth in India. However, agricultural productivity has been low for several decades and investment in the agricultural sector is stagnant. Agriculture subsidies are growing while rural investments are declining.

© 2007 IUP . All Rights Reserved

AGRI BUSINESS

Food Security : Environmental Concerns and Remedies

-- Rattan Lal

Soil degradation is an indication of the degree of the societal care of the land, but unfortunately it shows that the Indian population and policy makers are least bothered. Annual food grain production in India increased from about 50 million tons in 1950 to almost 220 million tons in 2007. Despite these impressive gains, the expected food grain demand for medium dietary requirement will be 253 million tons by 2011, 308 million tons by 2021, and 338 million tons by 2025. The food demand is driven by increase in population and possible change in diet because of increase in the earning power.

© 2007 IUP . All Rights Reserved

AGRI BUSINESS

Organic Farming : A Fresh Thrust Needed

-- Rajendra Prasad

Modern agriculture has been of great help in alleviating hunger from the world. The roots of modern organic farming can be traced to Europe during the first quarter of the early 20th century. It was conceptualized and initiated by the Austrian Philosopher Rudolf Steiner in 1924. The formation of the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements (IFOAM) in 1972 gave an international framework for discussion and codification of internationally recognized principles of organic farming.

© 2007 IUP . All Rights Reserved

AGRI BUSINESS

Genetically Modified Crops : Stepping Up Surveillance

-- Y Bala Bharathi

In an attempt to allay the growing clamor about GM crops, the Indian Supreme Court has brought them under close scrutiny. In the modern era, technological innovations play a pivotal role in fostering rapid economic growth of many major economies. And, India is no exception. The intensive use of technology has, indeed, changed the fortunes of many industries, such as telecom, software, electronics and pharmaceuticals. Nevertheless, opinion is divided across the globe, including the agrarian economies like India, when it comes to usage of agricultural technology.

© 2007 IUP . All Rights Reserved

AGRI BUSINESS

Commodity Futures : A Future Tool for Indian Banks?

-- V Shunmugam and DG Prasad

An analysis of the global situation reveals that banks participate across platforms and in various products in various countries not only to hedge their risk but also to add value to their clients. Globalization is accelerating the process of integration of Indian markets with international markets and liberalization is leading to increasing role of markets in deciding the prices, exposing all transactions in an economy to risks such as forex, interest rate and prices. This enables those with information on the impact of such risks and those with better incomes to face such risks, putting them at a more advantageous position compared to those unaware or negligent of the same.

© 2007 IUP . All Rights Reserved

AGRI BUSINESS

Innovations in Rural Finance : The Road Ahead

-- MS Sriram

Andhra Pradesh as a state provides an interesting case study of being the host for the most diverse microfinance models in the world, all thriving and competing, sometimes unhealthily so, for the client who is poor and disadvantaged. The past two and a half decades have been action packed as far as the rural finance scenario is concerned. There have been several innovations; some of the ideas that were thought about in the 1980s have become so intrinsic to the financial system that they no longer look like innovations.

© 2007 IUP . All Rights Reserved

AGRI BUSINESS

Rainfall Insurance : A Viable Option?

-- N Janardhan Rao and V Ratna

As agriculture is a risky business, many households are suffering low average income as well as substantial fluctuations in their income. However, rainfall insurance is emerging as a significant tool and holds promise for monsoon dependent farmers. Agriculture forms the backbone of the economy by supporting two-thirds of the Indian population and providing employment to 57% of the workforce. Besides, it provides raw material to a large number of industries. So any change in the sector has a multiplier implication for the economy. However till today, crop yield is dependent on the whims and fancies of the monsoons.

© 2007 IUP . All Rights Reserved

AGRI BUSINESS

Food Safety : What Needs to be Done?

-- Swaroop Kher,Harald Grethe

With the increasing awareness about food safety, nutritional security, environmental quality and animal welfare, the prevalence of strict quality standards on imported goods is increasing worldwide, especially in developed countries. `Certification' has become a buzzword and different certification systems have come up covering a variety of aspects related to human life and ecosystem protection.

© 2007 IUP . All Rights Reserved

AGRI BUSINESS

Reviving Agriculture : Role of India Inc.

-- N Janardhan Rao and V Ratna

The increasing role of India Inc. in agriculture is ushering in another kind of green revolution. Over the years, there have been no breakthroughs in either seed technology investment or farm yields. Moreover, the cultivable land for food grains has remained stagnant at 120 million hectares. There is no improvement of this land either in profitability or size of land holdings. Water crisis is at its peak, and even today the sector is heavily dependent on monsoons.

© 2007 IUP . All Rights Reserved

PERSPECTIVE

Asia : A Decade after the Crisis

-- Amit Singh Sisodiya and Sanjoy De

Even as the erstwhile Asian tigers (read: economies) are still smarting under the wounds caused by the financial catastrophe of 1997, concerns are being raised as to whether they have learnt their lessons from the shock. On July 3, this year, as Thai stocks rose to their record highs investors heaved a sigh of relief after having lived through the nightmarish catastrophe for almost a decade since the fateful day of July 2, 1997, when a financial crisis engulfed Thailand and other neighboring East-Asian nations. It all started with Thailand being at the pulse point of the crisis.

© 2007 IUP . All Rights Reserved

APOLITICAL

Indian Economy : The Other Side

-- grk

The Indian economy is in the midst of an unprecedented growth spurt. During the last three years, it grew at about 9% plus, while it was 9.4% during 2006-07. The non-farm sector recorded a growth rate of 10% for the last three years and 11% in the immediate preceding year, as against 6% recorded during the earlier years.

© 2007 IUP . All Rights Reserved

CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY

HIV/AIDS: Corporate Immune Deficiency Syndrome?

-- R Venkatesan Iyengar

HIV/AIDS is as much a threat to businesses as it is to individual life, family and society. It is high time the Indian corporate world became aware of this and joined forces to fight this epidemic. For a country that was expected to emerge as the HIV/AIDS capi- tal of the world sooner or later, the announcement made by the Union Health Minister on July 6, 2007 that the number of people infected with HIV/AIDS in India is not as alarming as it was projected to be must come as a heartening news. The revised figure of people infected with HIV/AIDS, compiled by the National AIDS Control Organization (NACO) and supported by the UNAIDS and the World Health Organization (WHO), indicate that the national adult HIV prevalence is approximately 0.36%, which corresponds to an estimated 2.1 million people infected with HIV. This is down from the earlier estimate of 0.9% or roughly 5.2 million people living with HIV.

© 2007 IUP . All Rights Reserved

ARTS AND ARTISTS

J Craig Venter : Bill Gates of Bio-soft Technology?

-- GRK Murty

Is God really in for a competition from J Craig Venter? This visionary biologist of the 21st century known for his contributions to genomic research, and the noted entrepreneur known for bio-prospecting for genetic gold in the depths of the oceans and deep in the rain forests, seems to be on the verge of creating the world's first free-living organism in his laboratory.

© 2007 IUP . All Rights Reserved

ARTS AND ARTISTS

Thanjavur Paintings

-- R Venkatesan Iyengar

There are many places in India where history has chosen to chisel its reminiscences on time. These historical places stand, towering over the vagaries of time, as enduring arcs between the past and posterity. Some of these places have also been the cradle and nursery of the country's finest art and culture that remain a living testimony to the abiding creativity, aesthetic ingenuity and proficient craftsmanship of the ancient Indians. Thanjavur, in the state of Tamil Nadu, is one such place.

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