India is the largest producer, consumer, importer and processor of pulses in the world. Ironically, the country’s pulse production has been hovering around 14–15 Mt, coming from a near-stagnated area of 22–23 M ha, since 1990–91. For meeting the demand of the growing population, the country is importing pulses to the tune of 2.5–3.5 Mt every year. Strong upward trend in the import of pulses is a cause of concern, since an increase in demand from India has shown to have cascading effect on international prices, thus draining the precious foreign exchange.

Mechanization in agriculture through modern power sources along with matching implements brings in added operational capacity, reduced dependence on labour, timeliness in field operations. This would lead to increased productivity and conservation of inputs, besides increase in profitability and sustainability of agriculture.

India's economic success has been remarkable; India's agricultural success will follow. Rural India still needs nurturing, not necessarily by just extra funding, but with vision and leadership addressing issues, with down to earth, workable solutions.

Using macro level data on MGNREGA performance in drought-prone states of Karnataka and Rajasthan as well as in irrigation-dominated state of Andhra Pradesh, this study has revealed that the impact of MGNREGA wage on the economic scarcity of labour is relatively modest when compared with the impact of hike in non-farm wages. Even though the provision of food security through public distribution system has contributed to the economic scarcity of labour, the relative hike in non-farm wages is contributing to higher economic scarcity of labour rather than PDS and MGNREGA wages.

What do the blue jeans you wear, the hamburger you have for lunch, and the sheet you make your bed with have in common? They all take copious amounts of water to produce. One pair of blue jeans takes 2,900 gallons or about 78 bathtubs of water. Even your morning cup of coffee takes 37 gallons (about one bathtub) of water