-NDTV Telangana government had coached children from underprivileged backgrounds, who were students of free government schools. Now they will go to IIT and NIT. Hyderabad: Marginal farmers, labourers, orphans, Dalits and tribals - nearly a hundred children from very underprivileged backgrounds have made Telangana proud this year. With special coaching from free government schools, 27 of them have cracked the entrance examination for the prestigious Indian Institutes of Technology. The other...

-Livemint.com Doling out farm loan waivers without addressing rural distress is just kicking the can down the road and playing into the hands of the moral hazard brigade Last week, farmers agitating for better prices for their produce of onions and pulses—prices for both of which have witnessed a steep fall in recent months—in Mandsaur district of western Madhya Pradesh turned violent. Coming in the backdrop of a similar agitation by farmers in...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: A group of retired bureaucrats have written an open letter ruing the "rising authoritarianism and majoritarianism" that is choking dissent, and urging public authorities to take "corrective action" to "reclaim and defend the spirit of the Constitution". "Argumentation and discussion about different perspectives - the lifeblood not only of institutions of learning but of democracy itself -are being throttled," the letter says. "Disagreement and dissent are considered seditious...

-The Hindu From a persisting cash crunch due to demonetisation to a price free fall because of a bumper produce, it’s a big bag of woes for farmers in Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra. Mahesh Langa and Jayant Sriram report on the gathering storm as their protests for a fairer deal threaten to escalate Abhishek Patidar, 19, had just passed his Class 11 exam this year with dreams of becoming a doctor. His...

-Livemint.com Activists who are ideologically opposed to genetically modified crop technology have unleashed a virulent campaign to stall the GM Mustard cultivation Seven-and-a-half years ago, BT Brinjal, developed by two public agricultural universities, was approved for commercial cultivation by the genetic engineering approval committee (GEAC), a statutory body. BT Brinjal is inherently resistant to the notorious fruit and shoot borer (FSB) pest and therefore produces a marketable crop without the large number...