Finding an “alarming picture” on the farm front with over 2/3 of landholdings of households in the country are of one or less than that hectare extent and the government credit not penetrating to them and bearing a high level of indebtedness with little access to good farming practices, an ASSOCHAM study has revealed. The study released on “Farm Structure Reform: Structural Changes on Farm Size Needed for further successes in Rural Front” says that there was a strong case for them to be collectively farmed either through corporate type or cooperative pooling of land.

Coal plays a critical role in our energy mix, providing over 70 per cent of India’s electricity supply. It is likely to remain a mainstay for several more years, given India’s immense power needs and domestic availability of coal. But coal is also the dirtiest of all fossil fuels. It burns to produce emissions that are a leading anthropogenic source of global warming, acid rain, smog and toxic air and water.

In June 2014, the Narmada Control Authority (NCA) of the Government of India approved the Gujarat Government’s application to increase the height of the Sardar Sarovar dam by 17.6 metres to 138.6 metres. The news was reported in the media, and there were a few scattered stories. There was also scattered reporting on the Jabalpur High Court’s stay on the NCA’s decision, and later the Supreme Court refusing to accept NCA’s appeal to transfer the case to the apex court.

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