Spotlight

New Delhi, 13 April 2007

NEW GREEN REVOLUTION

NEW DELHI, April 14 (INFA): Agricultural Extension programme is being revived by the Union Government to herald what the Urban Development Minister Jaipal Reddy describes as the “new green revolutions.”

Simultaneously, steps are also afoot for the Government to ensure that the credit to the agricultural sector is stepped up. Already the three-year target for doubling the credit has been achieved in two years. The target of Rs.1.75 lakh crore for 2006-07 is expected to reach Rs.1.90 lakh crore.

Meanwhile, the Centre is also turning its attention to the state of municipalities in various States.  The Union Government has recently released Rs.214.15 crore for infrastructure projects for the cash-starved local bodies in Andhra Pradesh.

The amount will be distributed among thirty-one Municipalities Corporations under urban infrastructure Development Scheme for small and medium towns. Drinking water supply and allied schemes will be taken up with the GoI grant.

Andhra Pradesh is turning out to be the biggest beneficiary under the proposed venture in the country.

In this context, a question has gone up: How green is Hyderabad? If one were to go by the statistics reeled out year after year by officials, then the city’s green brigade should be left with no fodder at all.

The official version insists that the green cover over Hyderabad is not depleting. On the contrary, it is on the rise. In fact, the Hyderabad Urban Development Authority says the extent of greenery in Hyderabad has gone up in the last ten years from 18 per cent to 24 per cent in 2006.

The Municipal Corporation of Hyderabad has claimed every year, more than 2.5 lakh saplings are planted across the city.---INFA

TWIN ENGINEERING DEGREES

Since the software industry has become one of the most lucrative sectors in the country, most engineering graduates end up in a software job.

In an attempt to make life simpler for these graduates, the Hyderabad-based Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University is planning a dual degree programme from the next academic year 2007-08.

Under this programme, students joining any engineering stream can opt out to study for one more year after their mandatory four-year B.Tech programme and by the end of five years get dual degrees, one in the engineering subject and one in computer engineering. ---INFA