Breaking new ground

Official tour reports from the fields are usually pretty drab documents that tend to get buried deep inside government offices. This year, however, the agriculture ministry has decided not to let the light of such official reports be hidden under a bushel. So the ministry has produced a neatly compiled book of the tour reports of the last year by its 15-odd officials titled “Vignettes of Indian Agriculture”. Apart from being a repository of ground-level reports, the book also contains suggestions to problems as seen by officers on the scene and how good work done in some places replicated nationwide. It is uncertain how far policy makers will refer to this document, but as an example of transparent bureaucracy it has certainly set a precedent.