-Economic and Political Weekly A number of state agencies and non-governmental organisations have come forward to facilitate farmers/breeders to register their crop varieties and obtain plant variety certifi cates. But can these agencies bring forth a change in the mindset of the small farmers and seed savers' groups who view the current intellectual property regime with scepticism and continue to keep away from it? Shalini Bhutani (shalinibhutani@hotmail.com) is a legal researcher and...

-The Hindu How the RightToRead programme focusses on making teachers an integral part of the learning process. The teacher crisis in India is well known but not spoken about as much. It is estimated our government schools are in need of 5.9 lakh primary-level teachers and 3.5 lakh upper primary-level teachers. By 2030, this number is projected to increase further. There is also the need for skills training so that the effectiveness...

-PTI NEW DELHI: The government today launched three agri-portals to make the process of organic farming certification, fertilisers' quality checking and issuance of soil health cards, more transparent and accountable. These portals, launched only in English, will be made available in regional languages also in the next phase for the benefit of farmers. "The three agricultural portals will bring more transparency and accountability. This will help the farming community," Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan...

-Business Standard Successors to Millennium Development Goals should be achievable - and clearly written "By 2030 reduce the global maternal mortality ratio to less than 70 per 100,000 live births." Everyone understands what this statement means. It is simple, comprehensible, concise, specific and quantifiable. In September 2015, the Milennium Development Goals, or MDGs, will be replaced by sustainable development goals, or SDGs. There are several parallel channels flowing into SDG formulation. One...

-The Hindu If Maharashtra is trying to identify children who are not getting educated, as per RTE, it has to include those children who are not studying the core subjects, be they in a madrasa, Vedic pathshala or any other religious or community school Maharashtra’s recent decision to conduct a survey of what it calls “non-school going children” seems to have created a storm. Political parties are now up in arms calling...