-The Indian Express Destruction of her murals shows the rot in the museum. The mindless destruction of Ganga Devi’s extraordinary last works at the Crafts Museum is terribly sad. It highlights the caste system between art and craft, the indifference to the creative integrity of a craftsperson’s vision. The quoted reaction of a Crafts Museum official, “Don’t worry, I’ll get another kohbar ghar painted” shows that, even for someone who claims...

-Down to Earth In rural India, poisoning accounts for four in 10 suicides due to swallowing of pesticides A World Health Organization (WHO) case study carried out in two Tamil Nadu villages shows the link between limited access to pesticides and the reduction in the number of suicides. A WHO report based on the study says that the suicide rate in these two villages reduced after pesticides were kept in storerooms instead...

-Down to Earth Communities are coming together in Jharkhand to create vigilance mechanisms to enforce food entitlement programmes Five-year-old Lalita and Kundan used to spend most of their day under a banyan tree in Pandanberha village in Deogarh district, Jharkhand. There was no anganwadi (child day care centre) or a playschool for more than 90 children in the village. There were also 14 pregnant and six lactating mothers who were deprived...

-PTI &NBSp; Medininagar (Jharkhand): Jharkhand Rural Development Minister Neelkanth Singh Munda today expressed dissatisfaction over the progress of projects under MGNREGA and Indira Awas Yojana in Palamau Commissionary. Munda, who held a review meeting with the district officials of Palamau, Garwah and Latehar under the Commissionary, told newsmen that he was not satisfied with the progress of projects under the two schemes and directed the officials to expedite the works. Only 62 per cent...

-The Times of India TRICHY: An invention to convert human urine into fertilizer for banana cultivation in 2012 by a principal scientist of the National Research Centre for Banana (NRCB) here has not gained traction among farmers. Moreover, the central and state governments have not evinced any interest on the invention for the reasons best known to them. Farmers too are unwilling to adopt the invention which could reduce the cost...