-The Times of India NEW DELHI: For 52-year-old Nagappa Nimbegundi, a farmer from Makari village in North Karnataka, this Independence Day was special. After three years of relentless efforts, he has managed to revive 13 varieties of indigenous cotton and 11 other varieties of non-Bt cotton in his farm. The seed bank that he is developing is of significance as 90% of cotton production in India has been taken over by Bt...

-The Hindu Hard work, dedication and some innovative thinking to make use of available resources for getting maximum benefit are practised by few farmers. Mr. Poornaand Venkatesh Bhat from Uttara Kannada district, Karnataka is an exception. A contractor-turned-farmer by choice, he started cultivation in 21 acres but soon had to give it up since his land was bought by the Government to set up a naval base. He invested the money he received...

-The Times of India JAIPUR: The past decade of rapid economic growth has brought many benefits to India, but on the flip side the environment has suffered the most, exposing the population to serious air and water pollution. India's remarkable growth record, however, has been clouded by a degrading environment and growing scarcity of natural resources. Mirroring the size and diversity of Indian economy, environmental risks are wide ranging and...

-Frontline A World Bank report on climate change warns that a warmer world will trap millions in poverty. "Much of the advance of European capitalists and other members of the European ruling class was at the cost of the colonised and enslaved peoples of Africa, Asia and Latin America," says Amiya Kumar Bagchi in his book "Perilous Passage: Mankind and the Global Ascendancy of Capital." Capitalist expansion following the Industrial Revolution involved...

-Tehelka.com The Sen-Bhagwati ‘debate' on economic policy is focussing on the wrong issues Several things are quite remarkable about the recent debate between Professor Amartya Sen and Professor Jagdish Bhagwati. The first surprise is that such a debate could become a major news item at all, making headlines and filling screen time on news channels, when it is about economic strategies that are normally discussed only in relatively small academic and policy...