-AFP NURJAHANPALLY: When Mahatma Gandhi took up the baton for home-grown cotton a century ago, he may not have realised the devastating impact its cultivation would have on the land he so loved. Cotton is a thirsty plant and parts of the country are drought-prone. But the intensive farming process for cotton leaches the soil and requires high pesticide and fertiliser use that pollutes further downstream. Now in Warangal, dotted with statues to...

-The Business Standard The default approach to reform - minimalistic and confused - will lead India into crisis  It is encouraging that the Planning Commission has undertaken an innovative exercise in scenario building for the country as part of the Approach to the 12th Five-Year Plan. The results are available in a document titled “Scenarios: Shaping India’s Future”, which can be found on the Planning Commission’s website. The merit of the document...

-The Telegraph Calcutta: Demand for commercial gas has risen sharply in Bengal, prompting suggestions that the subsidy cap on domestic cylinders has unmasked one of the worst-kept secrets in the country. The sudden spurt is being attributed to demand from commercial establishments and auto-rickshaws that were so far depending heavily on the subsidised cooking gas rampantly pilfered from the domestic segment. “We have been selling 6,000 (commercial) cylinders a day (to establishments) after...

-The Hindu Government seeks to address cyber attacks without compromising free speech and privacy National Security Advisor Shivshankar Menon on Monday opened up the national security regime to the private sector, with the launch of a cyber security report titled ‘Recommendations of Joint Working Group on Engagement With Private Sector On Cyber Security’. The Hindu was the first to report that such an initiative would be launched this week. “The enormous potential for...

-The Hindu Cyber security threats have recently emerged as the new defining security challenge in a networked global Internet economy. This explains why National Security Adviser Shivshankar Menon and his deputy Vijay Latha Reddy Reddy are focussed on engaging the private sector. Like others with similar responsibilities, the national security administration is more deeply concerned about security breaches and attacks through computers, mobiles and other devices than a physical act of war,...