Agriculture

Khunti district in Jharkhand has been infamous for illegal poppy farming for a long time with dealers luring the villagers to cultivate opium, offering them huge amounts of money.

From riding the tractor and scooter to effortlessly coordinating with their 30 farm hands, she does it all single-handedly!

For the 1990-batch Punjab Civil Services officer, who was promoted to the IAS in 1996, the reputation is one of honesty, fearlessness and a stickler for rules and their implementation.

Since its inception in 1997, Srinivasan Services Trust’s presence has been central in aiding rural communities in areas ranging from economic development and infrastructure to healthcare and education.

“We realised that although the government has so many welfare programs to offer, the end users are not aware of a majority of them… In rural parts access to internet and connectivity is a huge problem. Moreover, not everybody is tech-savvy to log on to the website.”

This particular species of cactus is thornless and is common to arid and semiarid parts of the world where it is consumed.

When he was selected and presented with the option to work with the prestigious Indian Revenue Services, he refused. Instead, he opted to work as an agricultural research scientist with the Indian Council for Agricultural Research (ICAR) to work with the tillers of the soil.

From identifying edible herbs and bee-keeping to transplanting paddy, this remarkable initiative is "bridging the field-to-plate gap" for city-based youngsters!

Community-Supported Agriculture is a partnership between a farm and the consumers where the risks and rewards of farming are shared.

One fine day in 1989, the municipality decided to transform Ghulam’s dream garden into a commercial market. Trees were cut ruthlessly, and plants were laid down by bulldozers.