Ever wondered what information the vast internet contains about alphonsoes? Not enough juice: just a list of exporters and a scant wiki-page. To fill this gap came agropedia. A content farm, a search engine and an online meeting ground for farmers and agri cultural students, the agropedia is for all those who have a haphazard and fuzzy idea about food. It is also for those who want to make the internet...

THIRTY-EIGHT years ago, Aruna Shanbaug, a nurse working at the King Edward Memorial Hospital in Mumbai, was sexually assaulted and strangled by a sweeper. The attack caused severe brain damage and left Aruna in a persistent vegetative state. The former nurse is looked after by a team of doctors and nurses at KEM. According to several reports, Aruna cannot move or see. She just lies in a comatose state in...

Small farmers granted waiver by 2008 central scheme win a roller-coaster legal battle In A significant ruling, the Gujarat High Court has granted loan waiver and relief of around Rs 22 crore to 312 farmers who got these loans from an urban co-operative bank for direct agricultural and allied activities under a central scheme. The court also held that no new condition can be added by the HC to a scheme...

The sight of a wiry, sweating man, straining as he pulls a rickshaw by hand is a frequent sight in Calcutta despite India's attempts to consign the practice to history. The gentle tinkling of its traditional bell sounds delightful amidst the cacophony of Calcutta traffic - with its ever increasing numbers of cars, taxis, lorries and motorbikes, all seeming to compete to blare their horns loudest and longest. But turn around and...

India faces the challenge of inappropriate use of antibiotics while Bharat copes with poor access to treatment, resulting in a policy conundrum and inaction. India was recently in the news for the wrong reasons. The serious threat posed by the newly discovered microbe, NDM-1 (New Delhi metallo--lactamase-1), resistant to many antibiotics, triggered alarm and panic. Predictions that the country will not meet the millennium development goal for child mortality caused dismay....