Veteran agricultural scientist and alumnus of Harvard and Berkeley Universities, Dr Peter Kenmore was in Mumbai for NABARD’s 30th anniversary lecture on ‘Future of Global Agriculture: Challenges and Opportunities for India.’ This United Nations Food & Agriculture Organization India representative spoke to Yogesh Pawar on the current scenario in agriculture. Some excerpts: There’s a lot of churn over GM technology in India. At a time when the country is grappling with...

-DNA Explain why more than 8.65 lakh metric tonnes (mt) of food grains meant for the poor under the Public Distribution System (PDS) have not been lifted between April and November 2011, the Bombay high court asked the state government on Thursday. A division bench of justice DD Sinha and justice V K Tahilramani, while directing the state government to file a detailed affidavit, said: “In areas such as Vidarbha, there is...

-The Economist HOW should one judge the lot of women in India, a country that is in many ways progressive, modern, tolerant and yet by turns repressive and hostile? Women hold the highest political positions (the presidency, speaker of parliament, leader of the ruling party, leader of the opposition in parliament, several chief ministers of large states) and in theory they are protected by a variety laws promoting equality. Though development indicators...

The Government of India has formally launched the news Guidelines of the MGNAREGA based on the Mihir Shah Committee report. The news guidelines include many new works under conservation activities and it strengthens the hands of the village panchayats and gram sabhas. However, the list of works does not include the activities under the system of rice intensification (SRI) which encourages scientific method of paddy cultivation with better yield in...

AHMEDABAD: What was the need for amicus curiae Raju Ramachandran to put down these words in his final report before the Supreme Court which became public this week? "The cost for boarding and lodging for both the amicus curiae at BSF mess, Gandhinagar as well as the cost for local transportation by private taxi was arranged by the SIT...the cost of travel from Delhi to Ahmedabad and back (for both...