-Deccan Herald Instead of reducing the usage, molecular breeders are conveniently dovetailing pesticides tolerance into GM crop varieties. It's a strange paradox. While the demand for organic food is rising unequivocally in the rich and developed countries as well as in the major developing countries, the use of chemical pesticides in agriculture is also growing at a phenomenal pace. The organic food industry in the US is relatively new. At a time when...

-The Hindustan Times At about this time every year, parents of children who are about to enter the school system in Delhi have sleepless nights. This year too the situation will not be different because the Supreme Court on February 1 refused to stay the new criteria for nursery admissions ordered by Delhi lieutenant governor Najeeb Jung. In December, reviewing an earlier order regarding nursery admission in private unaided recognised schools...

-The Hindu Concerned over the glaring increase in the number of beggars across all major cities and towns in the country, the Centre is now focussing on preventing begging. To begin with, the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment has asked the States and Union Territories to inform the Centre about schemes and welfare measures taken by them to check beggary. No information on implementation "Although various State governments and Union Territories have enacted...

-The Indian Express The gangrape may have brought the tribal councils of this West Bengal district to notoriety, but it wasn't the first sexual abuse on their orders. What is more at play here though is growing outside interference in a region considered a vote bank, writes Madhuparna Das. On January 29 evening, 900 people of a village in Birbhum district's Labhpur block gathered near the hut of their headman. The hut,...

-The Times of India LUCKNOW: A Lucknow bench of Allahabad high court on Friday ordered the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to probe into allegations of financial irregularities in MGNREGS in seven districts of Uttar Pradesh. Expressing displeasure over corruption in the scheme's implementation, the bench also directed the agency to hold preliminary inquiry into use of MGNREGS funds in other districts of the state. The court said the agency should conduct...