-The Hindu The production of waste in India is growing at an exponential rate. However, the welfare and dignity of the informal workers involved in the stigmatised sector of waste management remains at the bottom of any government’s political agenda. Human society has always produced waste and always will. Waste materials — substances without value — are constantly generated in all production, all distribution and all consumption processes. The time waste spends...

-Business Standard India’s growth in agriculture and allied activities has struggled to reach the targeted four per cent average a year in the first three years of the 12th five-year Plan because of a host of factors. The below-average farm growth is widely expected to deepen the crisis in the farm sector. In an interview with Sanjeeb Mukherjee, newly-appointed member of NITI Aayog and eminent agriculture economist Ramesh Chand  said over-reliance...

-Business Standard Uttar Pradesh's two main crops, wheat and sugarcane, have been facing a variety of problems in recent months Crop recasting, effective income security and a refocusing of the subsidy pattern to target small and marginal farmers are needed, went a presentation by the Uttar Pradesh agriculture department at the two-day national conference on rabi crops. The presentation was the basis of a discussion on the agrarian problem facing the country. Uttar Pradesh's...

-Deccan Herald Contrasting fortunes: One section of Maharashtra's tillers revels, one despairs Hyderabad: Millet growing villages in four mandals of Zaheerabad of Medak district have reported no farmer suicide even as the district accounted for 30 deaths every month and the state of Telangana recorded 1,400 suicides by farmers in distress. Medak district, which reported 145 deaths this year, so far reflects the hopelessness in agriculture sector.  It is indeed amazing to see...

-The Times of India AHMEDABAD: Kothara village in Kutch has 30 non-toxic plastic condensers installed in a surface area of 540sqm to generate water from humid air. This is filtered, stored in tanks and dispensed through pouches. In just four months, 13,500 litres of drinking water is produced and the cost for this is Rs30 per 20 litre container. On clear nights, the top surface of condensers gradually cools by losing heat...