-The Hindu If concurrent Lok Sabha and Assembly elections were to be a reality, it would go against the political diversity essential for addressing the social diversity of India. Though spoken about for quite a few years, simultaneous elections for the Lok Sabha and State Assemblies seem to be fast on their way to becoming a matter of national concern. This proposal is not only being discussed in the television studio, but...

-The Indian Express Decentralised industrialisation, entrepreneurship from below have been absent in states that have seen recent unrest among agrarian communities. “The soil here is very saline with electrical conductivity value of 9. We can grow only chloride-loving crops like coconut and the MR-2 variety of mulberry.” That was Tamil Selvi, recently telling this correspondent about the 5.75-acre land farmed by her father Natarajan Gounder at Velayuthagoundanpudur, a small village around 25...

-The Indian Express The government has failed to provide the right incentives to farmers India’s quest for self-sufficiency in pulses goes back, at least, to 1990-1991, when pulses were incorporated in the technology mission on oilseeds. In 1992, and 1995-1996, oil palm and maize were added to the mission, which was re-christened the Integrated Scheme on Oilseeds, Pulses, Oil palm and Maize (ISOPOM). In 2007, ISOPOM’s pulses component was merged with...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: The Supreme Court has asked the Centre to examine a doctor's claim that India's "unscientific" tuberculosis protocol stipulates an inadequate medicine regime to cut costs, thus promoting relapses and generating lethal drug-resistant strains. The court did not issue a formal notice to the government but asked additional solicitor-general Maninder Singh to talk to the petitioner, Raman Kakar, and get back to the court. Kakar has argued that the current...

-TheWire.in A study shows that lower the average income of a country, the lower is its consumption of fruits and vegetables. Nearly 60% of the people in low-income countries, including India, cannot afford the recommended daily intake of fruits and vegetables, research published in the British medical journal Lancet has concluded. Most nutritional guidelines recommend the consumption of at least two servings of fruits and THRee servings of vegetables per day. However, according...