Higher area under groundnut, bajra could not help summer acreage to continue the early lead over year-ago as both paddy and maize crops’ acreage is lower this time. It is to be seen if farmers shift to pulses, particularly to urad, as per the government plan, when all thrusts are on crop diversification.

The data of sowing under summer crops, which will end by May, has reached 26.53 lakh hectares (lh) as on February 27, which is 3 per cent less than 27.42 lh reported in the year-ago period. The zaid season sowing is progressing well, the government said, as reservoir levels are 12 per cent more now than year-ago. Zaid crop is grown before kharif sowing and after rabi harvest.

Summer crop areas, were earlier included under Kharif or Rabi season, but the government a few years back decided to start collating the data separately. The last five year’s average coverage under summer crops is 75.37 lakh hectares whereas the area reached an all time high of 83.92 lh in 2024-25. The share of summer crops was 19.11 million tonnes (mt) or 5.3 per cent in the total food grains production of 357.73 mt in 2024-25.

According to weekly update released by Agriculture Ministry, paddy sowing was down 7 per cent at 21.80 lh from 23.45 lh while nutri/coarse cereals areas up at 1.88lh against 1.68 lh year-ago. Among the nutri/coarse cereals, maize area is down at 1.33 lh from 1.36 lh, while bajra has reached at 0.31 lh against 0.21 lh, ragi at 0.17 lh and jowar at 0.06 lh until February 27.

Area under summer pulses reached 1.15 lh from 1.03 lh, in which coverage of greengram (moong) reached at 0.73 lh, and blackgram (urad) at 0.32 lh. The key growers of summer pulses are Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat. Summer pulses are key to offset when there is a fall in Kharif crops. In 2025-26 Kharif pulses production has been estimated at 7.41 mt from 7.73 mt in 2024-25.

Madhya Pradesh, the main producer of summer moong, recently announced a bonus on the urad crop grown in summer. Announcing the bonus of ₹600 per quintal over and above the Minimum Support Price (MSP) of Rs 7,800/quintal for urad, the state government said that the step is aimed at encouraging farmers to shift from moong during the summer (zaid) season.

But despite tall promises, farmers of Madhya Pradesh complained about not receiving MSP for their urad in Kharif season. During the key Kharif harvesting season (October-December) of 2025-26, farmers in Madhya Pradesh on on an average had sold their urad at agriculture market yards (Mandis) 26 per cent below MSP at Rs 6,181/quintal, according to Agmarknet portal.

Oilseeds area in this summer season is also higher at 1.69 lh from 1.26 lh and it includes groundnut at 1.33 lh and sesamum at 0.26 lh.

Meanwhile, according to the Central Water Commission (CWC), storage dropped to 59 per cent or 108.338 billion cubic metres (BCM) of the 183.565 BCM capacity as of February 26. The CWC’s weekly bulletin on the storage in the major reservoirs said the level was 12 percentage points higher than last year and over 25 percentage points more than normal (last 10 years). The level in all five regions dropped below 70 per cent whereas only 3 reservoirs were brimming.

Published on March 3, 2026

The programme will be implemented across all 33 districts of Telangana in phases through SERP’s district and block-level institutional network
| Photo Credit:
Andrii Yalanskyi

The Society for Elimination of Rural Poverty (SERP), in collaboration with the Technology Business Incubator Society (TBIS) at BITS Pilani Hyderabad, the start-up incubator T-Hub, and WE HUB, has launched a ₹12.66 crore Challenge Fund to promote rural entrepreneurship.

The initiative, which is backed by the Union Ministry of Rural Development, will support over 300 women and young entrepreneurs through targeted institutional support. It will help shortlisted entrepreneurs build capacity and scale their ventures.

Entrepreneurs operating in manufacturing, food processing, agri-allied enterprises, services, handicrafts and emerging sectors can submit their applications from March 8, 2026, marking International Women’s Day. 

The programme will be implemented across all 33 districts of Telangana in phases through SERP’s district and block-level institutional network.

Backed by the National Rural Livelihoods Mission (NRLM) Incubator Programme, the Challenge Fund will extend structured enterprise diagnostics, customised growth roadmaps and sector-specific mentoring.

In Telangana, more than 65 lakh women are organised into 4.35 lakh Self-Help Groups. By integrating this historically underserved cohort into formal credit, mentorship and market frameworks, the Fund expands the State’s pipeline of growth-oriented enterprises, according to Divya Devarajan, Chief Executive Officer of SERP.

Published on March 3, 2026

Infosys Logo
| Photo Credit:
Hand-out

Infosys and Intel have announced an expanded collaboration aimed at helping enterprises transition from AI pilots to large-scale implementations.

The partnership will leverage Intel’s high-performance computing platforms and Infosys’s Topaz Fabric to create a unified ecosystem for enterprise AI deployment.

The initiative focuses on optimising performance, ensuring security, and driving measurable outcomes across various industries.

Together, Infosys and Intel are co-innovating on the design, development, optimisation, and benchmarking of AI workloads across Intel Xeon processors, Intel Gaudi AI accelerators, and Intel AI PCs, it said.

Salil Parekh, Chief Executive Officer, Infosys, said, “By bringing together Intel’s compute leadership and the capabilities of Infosys Topaz, we are enabling enterprises to unlock AI value at scale – securely, cost-effectively, and with clear business impact.”

“Together, we are delivering performance-optimized, energy-efficient, and open AI solutions that clients can deploy wherever their workloads reside – from data centers to the cloud to the edge,” Lip-Bu Tan, Chief Executive Officer, Intel, said.

(This article was generated using AI)

Published on March 3, 2026