The objective of the paper is to examine the factors that determine the persistence of learners in distance education. It also gives attention to finding out the influence of intrinsic factors, institutional factors, motivating factors and curtailing factors of students who pursue their graduation programmes through the distance education mode on their persistence to continue the programme. The sample has been taken from a diverse student population in Chennai.The analysis is based on the results obtained using the partial least squares regression method. The study has several policy implications for educational administrators who play an important role in charting out policies to retain students from the first year to the second year, or across years that follow. Anthropologist, 35(1-3): 1-9 (2019)

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Producer Company is a new concept of organizing and uniting the farmers under one umbrella to help them compete in the market collectively, by increasing the yield and getting higher net returns for their produce. The farmers are mobilized into farmer groups and their capacity is enhanced to turn them into Producer Company. This paper examines the process involved in forming and nurturing the producer company and steps taken to achieve empowerment of farmers. Case study method was used to study two producer companies which have been involved in the production of vegetables. The results reveal that benefits to members of the producer company are significantly higher than non-members and they can earn a substantial profit of Rs. 2.1 lakhs by marketing their produce.