In news today : July 2, 2011

Union HRD Minister to Release NBT-NCAER Study on Reading Habits of the Literate Youth of North-East India

Youth of North-East India: Demographics and Readership (Highlights) Union Human Resource Development Minister Dr M M Pallam Raju , will release a report Youth of North-East India: Demographics and Readership in New Delhi tomorrow, 20 th November, 2012. Ministers of State for HRD, Sh Jitin Prasada and Dr Shashi Tharoor would also be present on the occasion. This focused Report attempts to give an analytical and detailed account of the reading habits of the literate youth in the north-eastern states and their exposure to different forms of media, and how diverse socio-economic and motivational factors impact their reading habit. The reading of ‘leisure or non-text books’ among the literate youth is the special focus of the study. The Report is a follow-up study of the National Youth Readership Survey (2009-10) assigned to National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER) by the NBT under the National Action Plan for the Readership Development amon

Major Initiatives for Farmers

Pic Courtesy : indiainfoline.com The Government gives very high priority to agriculture and specially to the prosperity of farmers. It is implementing a number of large schemes and providing funds to State governments for taking new initiatives for increasing farmers’ incomes. Some of the major actions taken in the recent past are given below: • Government has raised MSP in recent years by huge margin. MSP for wheat and rice has been more than doubled in last 8 years. MSP for some pulse crops has gone up three times. • Government has doubled the sugarcane support price in four years. It stands at Rs. 170 per quintal now. • Record foodgrain production of 257 million tonnes last year, supported by massive increase in MSP to farmers. It is more than thrice of foodgrain production 45 years back. • Government subsidises farm loans considerably. Crop loans upto Rs. 3 lakh are available at 4% interest. Other farm loans too are available at a subsidised rate of 7%. • Farm credit has