-Livemint.com Major consumer goods players have caught on to the emergence of ragi as an alternative food, triggering production of the millet crop in India New Delhi: Just like the humble quinoa, which has risen to global prominence as a ‘super food’, ragi or finger millet was once a subsistence crop—a poor man’s staple. For the last four years or so, all that has changed. “Demand for ragi has come back as people are...

-Down to Earth Long-term exposure to organophosphate insecticides puts the farming community at a higher risk of developing diabetes, shows a study IN 2011, a 15-year-old girl from Madurai was admitted to hospital for diabetes ketoacidosis. It is a life-threatening condition that develops when cells in the body are unable to get the sugar (glucose) they need due to the lack of insulin. Krishnan Swaminathan, an endocrinologist and president of the...

-The Hindu For the third child, the maternity leave entitlement will only be for 12 weeks. Calling it a ‘humble gift’ to women in India, Labour Minister Bandaru Dattatreya welcomed the Parliament nod to the Maternity Benefit (Amendment) Bill, 2016. Women working in the organised sector will now be entitled to paid maternity leave of 26 weeks, up from 12 weeks. The bill will benefit about 1.8 million women. The new law will...

-The Hindu Teachers, Anganwadi workers speak out against Centre’s decision Jaipur: Teachers and Anganwadi workers in Rajasthan have spoken out against the Centre's recent decision to link the midday meal scheme to Aadhaar, saying it would completely disrupt the process of food distribution and teaching and learning. They said it would create an “inhuman culture” where children would be denied food due to exclusion through biometrics. While responding to queries of the Right to...

-The Economic Times SILIGURI: Acute shortage in cold storage capacity has put potato farmers in great distress in West Bengal, which is the second largest producers of the tuber in the country after Uttar Pradesh. The situation, if not managed soon, may cause severe rural level socio-economic crisis in many districts of the state. As the potato sowing and reaping timeline goes, farmers start loading their produce at cold storages during March...