Technology… the knack of so arranging the world that we don’t have to experience it — Max Frisch, Swiss novelist and playwright Why do MNCs excite extreme emotions in India ? If you take any one of them from banks to pharma and chemicals to defence and aerospace, they are all clubbed together with the “usual suspects” who do more harm than good despite all the good intentions they might have had....

The legacy of Industrial Agriculture With the world population passing the 6 billion mark last October, the debate over our ability to sustain a fast growing population is heating up. Biotechnology advocates in particular are becoming very vocal in their claim that there is no alternative to using genetically modified crops in agriculture if "we want to feed the world". Actually, that quote might be true. It depends what they mean...

About five years after Sonia Gandhi raised a red flag on the Seeds Bill, 2004, on the grounds of “a growing perception” that it was “anti-farmer”, the Agriculture Ministry is preparing to introduce an amended version in the current session of Parliament. However, the Seeds Bill, 2010, reportedly also falls short of Congress’ expectations, and it has joined the Left and farmers’ organisations in demanding more changes in it. Leading the opposition...

Acting with determination and firm action, it should be possible for India to step up its agricultural growth rate to 10 per cent. The 11th Five Year Plan seeks to achieve 4 per cent growth rate in agriculture by the end of the Plan period. The Planning Commission is working towards an overall 9 per cent to 10 per cent growth rate. But the target of 4 per cent growth rate is...

In a bid to instil a sense of belonging among people living in the Naxal-affected states of Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh, the government is considering the inclusion of 185 castes in the Central list of OBCs, which will entitle them to a slew of benefits. Sources in the government said, “A proposal to this effect from the ministry of social justice is high on the agenda of the Union Cabinet, which will...