-The New Indian Express   Chennai: Non-governmental organisation Praphanjam conducted a food festival - Chennai Parampariya Unavu Thiruvizha - recently, hoping to draw attention to organic farming, which could help to reduce the suicide rate among farmers. With today's farmers in dire need of sustainability, only organic farming falls within the accepted definition of sustainable agriculture. But to put organic farming into practice, a large number of consumers are required. "Through this festival...

-The Business Standard   Study also says MGNREGA workers spent almost 21 minute less in collecting each payment made electronically compared with manual transfer Even as the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government has put on hold its ambitious unique identification (UID) code-linked cash transfer programme, a study by noted economists Karthik Muralidharan, Paul Niehaus and Sandip Sukhtankar shows that leakage of funds allocated for the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA)...

-Down to Earth The report-Climate Change 2014: Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability-says erratic and extreme weather, like severe droughts, floods and heat waves will affect food production across the world Growing food could become harder which could lead to a food crisis says the latest report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The apex body on climate change science released its report on March 31, 2014 in Yokohama Japan. It paints...

-The Hindu Chennai: The launch of bio-metric scanner to obtain fingerprint impressions of people involved in land transactions and installation of cameras in sub-registrar offices has already speeded up the registration process. Officials of the Registration Department expect the initiatives to usher in transparency and eliminate fake land deals. The new initiatives were launched last November across the State as part of steps to boost e-governance. Unlike earlier when people had to...

-Economic and Political Weekly   It is debatable if the report of the Reserve Bank of India's committee on comprehensive fi nancial services - the nachiket Mor Committee - offers practical solutions for extending banking services to the poorer sections of society and small businesses. The committee's recommendations are largely conceptual, and some of them could even have serious negative consequences. It is to be hoped that the RBI will examine all...