-The Telegraph Rainfall over India has been 42 per cent below normal during the first 13 days of the 120-day monsoon season, with vast tracts of the peninsular region still waiting for rains, but scientists today predicted a fresh surge within the next three days. The India Meteorological Department said today it expects atmospheric conditions to “become favourable” for a further advance of the monsoon over parts of Bengal and Odisha over...

Science and technology hold the key to developing low-input, high-output agriculture. The challenge is to use new technologies creatively and to make evidence-based decisions on the deployment of new technologies. Crop breeding is carried out to meet two broad objectives: one, to increase yields of a crop per se and, two, to protect the yield potential by developing crops resistant to diseases, pests and environmental extremes.  Both yield-enhancement and yield-stabilisation are...

-The Times of India With the development of cyclonic circulation over east central Arabian Sea on Tuesday, the southwest monsoon finally showed promise of progressing further into the country. In the next three days, the system which had so far stalled over coastal Karnataka and Tamil Nadu shortly after its onset on June 5 will become stronger over the west coast and Konkan.  "Under the influence of the cyclonic circulation, the southwest...

The odds of an El Nino phenomenon developing in July through September and potentially affecting the Indian monsoon are dead-even at 50-50, offering hope that India's agriculture and economy may yet escape a crippling blow.  A stuttering economy has seen heightened attention on the Pacific warming, known to disrupt the southwest monsoon, as poor rains this year can be a further brake on growth, jeopardizing bonus farm production recorded in recent...

Past two months saw B D Sharma negotiating release of high-profile hostages by the Maoists in Odisha and Chhattisgarh. TV viewers saw and heard Sharma, probably for the first time. Widely respected in the civil society, he has been championing the rights of tribals for four decades now. He served as collector in the undivided Bastar district of Chhattisgarh in the 1970s, after which he quit the Indian Administrative Service....