-PTI As much as 40 per cent drop has been recorded in sales in markets across the country due to low footfall of consumers because of cash shortages New Delhi: As much as 40 per cent drop has been recorded in sales in markets across the country due to low footfall of consumers because of cash shortages, traders body CAIT said on Monday. With just 3 days for Diwali, “markets across the country...

-Hindustan Times With no viable alternative, thousands of farmers set their fields on fire despite being aware of the consequences of the act on the air they breathe. A look at the possible solutions. As the thick white smoke, billowing from a corner of the field filled the air, a 63-year-old farmer was busy moving some of the still-burning hay with a shovel. He was spreading it to another corner to allow the...

-The Times of India Many members of the Niti Aayog's newly constituted Working Group on Nutrition have significant conflicts of interests. Several are representatives of international agencies, which have close ties to multinational food companies including Nestle, Hindustan Unilever, Coca Cola, Monsanto, Mars and Ajinomoto, and which have been pushing packaged therapeutic food to address malnutrition. The government has repeatedly clarified that packaged energy dense food is against India's policy on...

-Hindustan Times Every year in October, farmers in northern India burn stubble due to lack of alternative ways for its disposal. This leads to heavy pollution in Delhi-NCR before winters. This year too, as farmers begin to set stubble afire, HT travels to Punjab and Haryana for a ground report. Honking its way down the narrow Taraouri Road, in Haryana’s Karnal district, the 16-wheeler truck vanished into a dense cloud of...

-Hindustan Times Farmer unions have been telling farmers to burn the straw until the government doles out some funds per acre for expenses that go into managing it by other means. Patiala: Seeking government aid to handle farm residue before following the ban on burning of paddy straw, farmer unions’ representatives collectively set fire to it in a 25-acre field at Shajju Bhatt village in Nabha to send across a message...