Assam

The report on the State of Indian Agriculture placed by the Government to the Rajya Sabha and the Lok Sabha, calls for wide-ranging reforms in agriculture sector to enable it to meet the growing demands and meet the challenges posed by various human and environmental factors. The first issue of State of Indian Agriculture series had been published by the National Academy of Agricultural Sciences (NAAS) in 2009. 

The present report begins with a review of the status and performance of agriculture, especially during the last two decades, and also presents what could be the way forward, given our objectives of accelerated growth, inclusiveness and the reducing of poverty and hunger. As per the report, the significance of agriculture sector in India is not restricted to its contribution to GDP, but that on account of its complementarity with other sectors. It has far reaching ability to impact poverty alleviation and rural development. There are several areas of importance for the agriculture sector growth. These include, among others, enhancing public sector investment in research apart from effective transfer of technology along with institutional reforms in the research set up to make it more accountable and geared towards delivery, conservation of land, water and biological resources, the development of rainfed agriculture, the development of minor irrigation, timely and adequate availability of inputs, support for marketing infrastructure, an increase in flow of credit particularly to the small and marginal farmers.

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A workshop on ‘Understanding and resolving water conflicts in the North East India', was organized by Forum for Policy Dialogue on Water Conflicts in India (Forum), in collaboration with Aaranyak (Guwahati), Centre for the Environment, IIT (Guwahati), Arghyam (Bangalore), SaciWATERs-CapNet Network (SCaN) and Cap-Net to discuss emerging issues related to water conflicts and their resolution in the region. This workshop was held in Guwahati on January 23-26, 2012. It aimed at presenting concepts and theory related water conflicts as well as issues especially relevant to the North East Region.

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This report by Ernst & Young and ASSOCHAM on “Mining India: Sustainably for growth” gives insights into the mining sector in India and issues around capital raising, policy framework, efficiency and sustainability and provides a way forward for strategic acceleration of the benefits.

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This report by the Task Force, constituted by the Planning Commission, Government of India in April, 2008, is an outcome of the need expressed by the Prime Minister of India for a fresh analysis of the problems of the hill states and hill areas of the country in a manner that suggests that these areas do not suffer in any way on account of their peculiarities.

Opinions have been expressed that the pace of development of the Indian Himalayan Region (IHR) has been slow when compared to the rest of the country. At the same time, its fragile nature and difficulty of taking up conventional development initiatives has not been appreciated. In this report, arguments have been presented recommending reshaping of policies to bring in the “mountain perspective” for the IHR, in the national planning. Emphasis has also been laid on developing norms for good governance and for harnessing social capital at the grassroots.

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