-The Times of India Shahjahanpur: As smog engulfed northern parts of India causing respiratory diseases and burning of eyes, experts from the sugarcane research centre in Shahjahanpur has appealed to farmers to use fungus cultured Organo decomposer (OD) instead of burning crop residue. Burning of crop residue is one of the many reasons that have contributed to the recent blanket of smog in large parts of north India, including western UP....

-The Hindu Paddy stubble, unlike wheat residue, isn’t valuable animal feed. Incentivising biomass-based power plants in Punjab and Haryana will help north India breathe easier. Delhi has registered its worst air quality in recent times. This has prompted Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal to call it a “gas chamber”. Pollution in different parts of the capital has touched hazardous levels with potentially serious health effects on the rich and poor alike, especially on...

-The Times of India MADURAI: A portable toilet which could be used by deep sea fishermen ensuring their safety and also hygiene has been designed and patented by the faculty of Kalasalingam University in Srivilliputur. Professor P Jeyakumar, the brain behind the project, said that fishermen who went deep sea fishing spent many days out at sea in the trawlers which were small in size and lacked toilet facilities. Defecation was done...

-The Hindu Tiruchi: The farmers of Lalgudi block said absence of summer showers had brought down the growth of the green Manure. There has been a growing awareness among farmers in raising green Manure for enriching the fertility of the soil. A farmer of Peruvalanallur in Lalgudi block, V. Padmanabhan, a retired PWD Executive Engineer, said that he raised green Manure — daincha — on 13 acres, for use in his paddy fields....

-The Indian Express The flagship rural jobs programme has shown improved performance after initial neglect by the Modi government. New Delhi: The Narendra Modi government may spend close to Rs 60,000 crore on the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) in the current fiscal, a record for the programme that was a baby of the previous United Progressive Alliance regime. The Union Budget had allocated Rs 38,500 crore towards MGNREGA for...