Indigenous knowledge and farming practices of the region's tribal people recognised for promoting food security and conserving biodiversity Traditional farming systems in India have received a major boost at a time when Indian agriculture is struggling to come to terms with modern technologies. The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations has accorded the status of Globally Important Agricultural Heritage System (GIAHS) to the traditional agricultural system being practiced...

-The Times of India Wildlife experts and enthusiasts from around the world will congregate in the air-conditioned environs of Mahatma Mandir in Gandhinagar as part of the Global Bird Watcher's Conference on January 19. But it would make more sense if they met in the marshlands of Kutch and surrounding areas, which have become a graveyard of some of the most endangered winged species in the country - flamingos. Conservation activists have...

-The Times of India   The Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission (TNPSC), which is under a cloud over irregularities in recruitments over the past couple of months, has now extended its dubious streak of not being transparent enough. It has reportedly denied information to an RTI petition on the recruitment of assistant directors of the Town and Country Planning department despite two orders from the high court and two directions from the...

-The Business Standard   Economists question veracity of the data; say too early for RBI to cut rates. Food inflation for the week ended December 10 fell to a four-year low of 1.81 per cent, after declining to 4.35 per cent last week. The decline is much sharper than what Chief Economic Advisor Kaushik Basu expected — he had predicted less than three per cent food inflation by early January. What’s more, many...

-The Hindu   They set deadline for removing fuel assemblies in KKNPP complex Anti-Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project protesters will lay siege to the upcoming nuclear complex with their family members if works were resumed, and intensify the protest if fuel assemblies stored in the KKNPP complex were not removed before December 31, struggle committee convener S.P. Udayakumar has warned. The deadline has been in the wake of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's announcement in Moscow...