Two unique languages disappear with death of last speakers When Boro died on Strait Island last November, Boa lost a friend. The world lost a language. Last week, Boa also died. Another language died with her. The death of these last surviving speakers of two Great Andamanese languages, Khora and Bo, has resulted in the extermination of their unique tribes on the islands. “There are just 50 Great Andamanese left,” says...

Are the world and human society in general ready and willing to take action on critical issues that require a major change in the manner in which we produce and consume goods and services?  The science of climate change is now well established. This is the result of painstaking work of over two decades carried out by thousands of scientists drawn from across the globe to assess every aspect of...

With a large number of people living on subsistence level of income, the government has to safeguard their interest by ensuring availability of food grains at an affordable price. Success of any policy or programme to this effect depends on growth in agriculture production and procurement of wheat and rice, the main staple foodgrains. Though the performance of agriculture has not been uniform throughout and its growth rate has varied...

An international private-social group foresees India’s water demand exceeding availability by a factor of two by 2030. Time is now for India to take on the daunting task of formulating a unifying national water policy.  The 2030 Water Resources Group is a consortium of private-social sector organisations formed in 2008 to provide insights into emerging world-wide water issues. In a report, “Charting our water future” issued in 2009, the group...

The government’s expectation of the rabi wheat crop making good the shortfall in drought-affected kharif season received a set-back with a lower acreage in wheat, coarse cereals and oilseeds this season. Sowing of pulses, however, is 6.2 per cent higher than last year in the corresponding period. The sowing period ends around January 15. The sowing of rabi wheat, coarse cereals and oilseeds has fallen behind last year and this does not...