Ajit Singh, a farmer in the poor northern state of Uttar Pradesh, had never seen a computer until four years ago when ITC, the Indian agribusiness-to-hotels conglomerate, installed a PC in his village, Kurthia.

Now the thin 47-year-old farmer visits the ITC station, known as an "e-choupal" after the Hindi term for "gathering place", every day for online access to news*papers, crop prices, weather forecasts and farming techniques. As ITC's village manager, he passes on what he gleans...

narendra

NEW DELHI (AFP) — India needs to produce a second "Green Revolution" to boost food supplies or the nation's 1.1 billion people will face huge social turmoil, the country's top farm scientist warned.

The government has identified agriculture as a key area for economic reform and called for changes to boost output of such staples as wheat, rice, lentils and vegetables and bring down soaring food prices.

But so far there has been "no sign of major steps to make that happen,"...

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