-AP New Delhi: India is failing to help and protect journalists who are facing violent threats or Attacks for their work, an international watchdog agency said Monday, noting a pattern of resistance in investigating crimes targeting reporters. The Committee to Protect Journalists counted 27 journalists killed for their work since 1992, and noted that it was still investigating more than two dozen cases to determine whether those journalists’ deaths were also work-related....

-Hindustan Times Amritsar: Even as northern states, including Punjab, have witnessed better rainfall this season as compared to previous years, farmers are worried about the yield of their kharif crops. The agriculture department officials say in comparison to previous years, the amount of rainfall was better this monsoon. Also, there was enough sunshine as required by the crop, another positive sign promising a good yield. “Around 20% more rainfall has been recorded...

-Frontline Medecins Sans Frontieres warns that the free or regional trade agreements that are being negotiated, which seek to strengthen current patent regimes, are a potential threat to the developing world’s access to life-saving drugs, which it sources mostly from India. WHEN NELSON MANDELA’S GOVERNMENT passed the Medicines and Related Substances Control Act in 1997 to make medicines more accessible to the poor, 39 big pharmaceutical companies filed law suits in...

-The Indian Express It has instructed farmers to go for direct purchase from shops where pesticides recommended by PAU and agriculture department are available given at subsidised rates. Ludhiana: AFTER A pesticide purchase scam came to light following failure of cotton crop due to whitefly Attack last October, the agriculture department has decided not to purchase any pesticide this year. It has instructed farmers to go for direct purchase from shops where pesticides...

-The Hindu  The latest inflation readings based on the Wholesale Price Index and the Consumer Price Index are a cause for concern. While the annual gain in wholesale prices hit a 23-month high of 3.55 per cent in July, retail inflation quickened past the Centre’s new Monetary Policy Framework’s upper limit for tolerance to 6.07 per cent. Food costs — a key component in both indices — were the main culprit....