-NDTV This year, the Punjab government claims farmers are likely have a bumper cotton harvest, with cotton acreage doubling in the Malwa region to about 3.9 lakh acres -- against last year's 2.4 lakh acres -- and the government's awareness and action-against-whitefly campaigns in place Punjab: Baldev Sharma, 39, from Bathinda's Talwandi Sabo is a third generation cotton farmer. This year he sowed cotton on 12 acres of land compared to...

-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 What happened? On June 1, farmers in Maharashtra went on strike for the first time ever. Their agitation saw violence, and angry farmers spilling milk and throwing vegetables on the road; at one point the strike expanded into a bandh call, where agitators threatened to stop supply to urban markets. This apparently leaderless agitation grabbed the attention of both the government and the urban population, quite ignorant of conditions in...

-The Asian Age The NGOs have warned against treating poor children across the state as guinea pigs, putting their health at risk. Mumbai: Instead of providing hot cooked, nutritious meals to malnourished kids, the state women and child welfare department  has recently decided to purchase corporate-manufactured ‘ready to use therapeutic food (RUTF)’ packets for severely malnourished children across Maharashtra. A memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed on August 4, permitting the use...

-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...