Delhi Confidential: Busy Schedule

Science and Technology Minister Jitendra Singh is in London these days to attend the India-UK Science and Innovation Council meeting. Singh met his British counterpart, George Freeman, at the British Parliament, among several meetings he had. Even before the Council meetings began, representatives of Rolls-Royce, led by its director Patrick Horgan, turned up to meet Singh to apprise him of the clean energy technologies that they are employing and collaborations that Rolls-Royce has proposed with India.

Studying Inspiration

The Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), New Delhi, and the National Institute of Agricultural Extension Management, Hyderabad, have conducted a joint study of the Prime Minister’s monthly radio programme, ‘Mann Ki Baat’, on farming communities. One of these studies is “Inspirational thoughts can drive a positive behavioural change: The perceived benefits of Mann Ki Baat (Inner thoughts) messages amongst the smallholder Indian farmers”. It is based on a sample size of 1,364 respondents. As per findings of the study, 13.78 per cent smallholder farmers listened to messages on “diverse” agricultural issues under ‘Mann Ki Baat’ regularly: 34.90 per cent listened to it mostly, and 48.46 per cent occasionally. The remaining 2.86 per cent respondents said they did not listen to ‘Mann Ki Baat’.