-The Times of India NEW DELHI: The human DNA profiling Bill, as recommended by an official expert committee, has controversial clauses dealing with "issues relating to pedigree" and introducing an intrusive mode of collecting samples from living persons called "intimate forensic procedure". This procedure detailed in the draft Bill due to be introduced in the current session of Parliament involves collection of "intimate body samples" of living persons from "the genital or...

-The Hindu Bengaluru: Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister M.Venkaiah Naidu has termed the statement made by Union Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh on farmers’ suicides in the country as “objectionable and unacceptable”, and said the mistake occurred due to "messed up data" provided by the National Crime Records Bureau. In a reply to a question at a press conference in Bengaluru on Saturday, Mr. Naidu said, “the statement as reported is objectionable and...

-The Hindu There has been a lot of misreporting and conspiracy theorising about the new farm suicide numbers. No doubt, these numbers – as with most crime data – likely underestimate the problem. Farmers without clear land title, for instance, may not be recognised as farmers, artificially lowering their number. The negative media reporting around farm suicides may also be an incentive against the police reporting a farm suicide as one. These...

-Macroscan.com According to the latest NSSO data, the proportion of Indian households in which at least one member had access to the Internet is far short of the near universal connectivity envisaged by the Digital India mission.  Please click here to read more.  * This article was originally published in The Hindu on July 21, 2015 ...

-Down to Earth After two budgets and Rs 5,300 crore in funding, the Centre's micro irrigation project that promises water to every farmland is not even close to a roll-out The news of deficit monsoons this year has once again left the Centre worried. A concerned prime minister chaired a high-level meeting on June 8 where he emphasised the need to quickly augment the irrigation capacity of the country. But he conveniently...