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Introduction Tribal women labour of Tribal Sub Plan Area (TSP) in Rajasthan operates today in an economy which is no more secluded but is under a specially designed development programme. Since the Five Year Development Plan of India, the main aim has been to promote the education and economic development of scheduled tribes and to protect them from social injustice and economic exploitation (TSP in Rajasthan, 1986–87). As a result tribal economy is facing a change. Moreover, the tribal economy and its people are exposed today more than before to non‐tribals and their social and ethical norms, and consequently, a change in the economic condition of tribal women is likely to occur. Enough information is not available about the changes which have taken place among the tribal women in the tribal belt of Rajasthan since the operation of the Fifth Plan. Hence, attempts have been made to find out how far these changes affected the tribal women labour in the district of Dungarpur, in the State of Rajasthan. This study is thereby, mainly about the women labour of Bhil tribe, a predominant tribe of the district of Dungarpur. Empirical results are presented in this paper.

Since the education of Master of Science students in the discipline of agriculture is catalectic without libraries, the present paper seeks to assess the information literacy competency (ILC) of post graduate (PG) students at Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar, India, along with the impact of instruction initiatives in this respect.

Based on the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) Information Literacy Standards for Science and Engineering/Technology, 2006, an instrument was developed with 79 scoring items in the first part of the questionnaire along with non‐scoring items in the second part. Broad headings of the questions asked are shown in detail. Validity and reliability of the instrument are also reported.

Information literacy competency of PG students has been found satisfactory along with significant difference between the first and second year students. Results of the paper distinguish between the first and second year students in the light of five information literacy (IL) standards along with other considerations. Various instruction initiatives were found to have a positive impact upon the ILC of PG students.

Since the study has been able to establish a positive relationship between instruction initiatives and ILC, such initiatives may be introduced in other academic institutions.

None of the earlier reported research instruments had used science and engineering/technology IL standards, especially upon PG students in agriculture. This study further paved the way for the development of such an nstrument along with assessing the ILC of PG students and impact of instruction initiatives in an agricultural university.