Vijay Sardana Online

Maize Summit 2016 :  What is the Future of Maize in India? IMPORTANT: (Click on page to enlarge for better reading view)  

Two North East districts record highest cancer incidence rate in India A new report published by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), under its National Cancer Registry Programme (NCRP), recorded Aizawl in Mizoram and Papumpare in Arunachal Pradesh as districts with the highest age adjusted cancer incidence rate in the country. A Nandakumar, principal coordinator of NCRP, on Saturday said unhealthy lifestyle choices and increased consumption of smoked meat and tobacco are to be blamed. Age adjusted cancer incidence rate is a scientific method to compare aged patients and the young adults attacked by the disease. It also takes into consideration the number of old and young people affected comprising a particular local population. While Aizawl was found to have the highest cancer incidence rate in men with 271 affected in a population of 1,00,000, Papaumpare was found to have the highest cancer incidence rate in women with 249 affected in a population of 1,00,000. Thi

USD 100 billion is the Economic Cost of 2016 Drought in India Yet no Implementation Plans to prevent the same in future is visible, just plans and promises on paper Author has made some assessment, placing before you for your comments and feedback. Share with others if you like it. Government and planners are stuck in the game of averages and ignoring the ground reality. It is of new use of average if one area is flooded and other is suffering from drought. Average may seem comfortable on paper, but fact is on both ends people are suffering.  Panic is setting in: The ground situation is so frightening that Ministry of Agriculture has stopped reporting area under crop from the weekly weather reports in recent weeks. Why they stopped sharing information with people? What is the motive? Let us analyse the situation with facts: Current water shortage both in reservoirs as well as lowering of ground water table has created a serious challenge for all.  The current drou

Electronic National Agriculture Market (eNAM) – State level political will decide its fate? By: Vijay Sardana   On 14 th April,2016 eNAM was formally launched. National Agriculture Market (NAM), an official version of the most controversial and now defunct National Spot market, is a pan-India electronic trading portal which networks the existing APMC mandis to create a unified national market for agricultural commodities. The NAM Portal provides a single window service for all APMC related information and services. This includes commodity arrivals & prices, buy & sell trade offers, provision to respond to trade offers, among other services. While material flow (agriculture produce) continue to happen through mandis, an online market reduces transaction costs and information asymmetry. Existing Indian agriculture marketing structure is classic case of how inefficiencies can be created in value chains to protect vested interest and to keep competition awa

Open letter to Prime Minister on "Make in India" and Challenges for Honest Manufacturers Dear Sh. Modi ji, Hon’ble Pradhan Sewak of India I heard your appeal for “ maan ki baat ” to share ideas with you. Let me draw attention to you on something very basic and fundamental issue, because I never heard you talking about food safety and adulteration in India. I know it will put India in bad light, but we can't ignore the facts on ground as well. You attention can change the situation, that is why I am raising this difficult issue. It was shameful experience when some foreigners asked me in a conference, what are you doing as country under 'Make in India' to check adulterated and unsafe products for your own citizens. ·        Why you are not willing to offer safe food to your own people, why only exports are of interest to you? ·      Will "Make in India" ensure food safety and healthy food for your own people, before feeding the wor

How Proposed Consumer Protection Bill, 2015 will change many Business Practices? The Consumer Protection Bill, 2015, was introduced in Lok Sabha on August 10, 2015 by the Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, Mr. Ram Vilas Paswan. The Bill replaces the Consumer Protection Act, 1986. The Statement of Objects and Reasons of the Bill states that this is to widen the ambit and modernize the law on consumer protection due to the changes in the markets. Highlights of the Bill ·         The Bill replaces the Consumer Protection Act, 1986. ·         The Bill enforces consumer rights, and provides a mechanism for redressal of complaints regarding defect in goods and deficiency in services. ·         Consumer Dispute Redressal Commissions will be set up at the district, state and national levels for adjudicating consumer complaints. ·         The Bill establishes a Consumer Protection Authority to investigate into consumer complaints, issue safety notic

How to address Pulses Crisis in India? “Pulses Diplomacy and Pulses Management” Action Plan for Policy Makers By Vijay Sardana Domestic demand is out pacing the domestic supply base. Demand is about 28 million tons and supply is about 18 million tons. Few economist assume due to poverty people can't afford pulses so the actual demand is about 23 to 24 million tons. I feel poverty should not be an excuse for  justifying  demand and supply gap. poor needs better nutrition because of unhygienic and difficult living conditions.  There are few pulses which are very popular and few are less popular because of recipes and traditional uses. There are many other field crops which are used as pulse and also in may other applications. We should keep these in mind when we are planning for pulses.  There are many reasons for inflation and demand -supply gap in pulse. This can be discussed in detail separately. These issues should be address keeping 3 to 5 years’ time horizon