Microsoft founder Bill Gates' “ultimate dream” is low-cost toilets.

It is a government agency that was set up specially to fund non-profits working on rural development. But of late the Council for People’s Action and Advancement of Rural Technology (CAPART) has been plagued by allegations of corruption and inefficiency. After a few failed attempts to reform CAPART, the government has now decided to overhaul the agency which has close to 12,000 NGOs associated with it.

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh plans to increase the government's R&D spending and create incentives for the private sector to increase spending on science and technology as well.

In 1905, Sir William Osler, the most influential physician of his time, stepped down from the medical faculty of Johns Hopkins University at the age of 55. At his farewell, he emphasized that the “effective, moving, vitalizing work of the world is done between the ages of 25 and 40—these 15 golden years of plenty.” Many of us, who are old but still active like myself, may like to strongly disagree. But the power of the creative prime in this age group is irrefutable.

Despite the steady growth of India’s farm sector in the past five years, the country has not been able to utilise fully the many scientific achievements in the agriculture sector, Prime Minister Ma

Preparations for the Rio+20 United Nations conference on sustainable development have begun, but the first round of preparatory meetings did not address important issues such as sustainable resource use, production and consumption.

The design of overhead lines (new lines, uprating or refurbishment) in the deregulated environment is critical to the competiveness and profitability of the utility company. Should, for example, the design limit the power transfer to levels, which prohibit sales of MW at peak periods, the losses can be enormous. This fact, as well as the limitations imposed on capital expenditure, make the optimisation of line design a critical activity.

Creativity or out-of-the-box thinking is evenly distributed in all societies in the world. On that count rural India should be a major source of creative minds that has remained untapped. Due to our city-centric policies, it may take decades before modern science and technology (S&T) reaches rural India. Meanwhile the Moving Academy of Medicine and Biomedicine, Pune has developed a module to nurture talent in the villages. The module essentially consists of a base laboratory and villagelevel hub of modern S&T with extensive innovative outreach programmes for village schools.

The Indian economy has been growing at 8% during the last decade. The service sector has contributed immensely to this growth and continues to grab a large share of the gross domestic product (GDP). However, the agricultural sector is still the biggest employer in India and supports the livelihood of more than half the population. Given the dependence of such a large proportion of Indians on the four-month monsoon season – the storage, conservation and protection of water is of paramount importance for the economy as well as health of the nation.

This paper reports on the availability, use and information seeking behaviour of a farming community with specific reference to Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs). It fills a research gap by examining what people do with a medium when they have access to it, rather than looking at barriers surrounding the use of ICTs and digital divide issues arising due to differential access and capabilities. The study was conducted in a state in North India, and provides insights into intentions and factors surrounding the use of various media by farmers.

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