-The Times of India A group of girls, almost all in shorts, are dancing after a wonderful strike that fetched them a goal. The goal wouldn't count much, in fact it doesn't count at all during a coaching camp. But for these girls, it's much more than just the sight of the ball crashing into the net that brings delight. For years, these girls from Mumbra have braved odds just to be...

-The Financial Express Flood-affected cotton farmers in Gujarat are now worried about pink bollworm attacks on the cotton crop. According to the farmers, almost the entire Saurashtra region of the state has been stricken by the insect, while north Gujarat has been partially affected. Gujarat is the largest cotton-producing state in India. According to the data of Gujarat’s agriculture department, cotton sowing has been done on over 2.63 million hectares as on...

-PTI New Delhi: Foodgrain output in the ongoing 2017-18 kharif season is likely to surpass last year’s record of 138.04 million tonnes due to higher acreage and a good monsoon for the second straight year, Agriculture Secretary Shobhana K Pattanayak said today. So far, more than 80 per cent of the sowing of kharif crops — paddy, pulses, oilseeds, cotton, sugarcane and jute — has been completed and planting will continue in...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court continued to subject the debate on constitutional status for the right to privacy to close scrutiny, saying economic rights of citizens and provision for food and other essential items could never be a ground to undermine basic fundamental rights. This observation came when senior advocate C A Sundaram, appearing for the Maharashtra government, reiterated the Centre's stand that right to privacy would always...

-Livemint.com Unlike the dhoti-clad, topi-wearing quintessential ‘kisan’, the new Indian farmer is vocal and tech-savvy New Delhi: In the winter of 1988 when the feisty farmer leader from Uttar Pradesh, Mahendra Singh Tikait, laid siege to Delhi with thousands of cultivators and their cattle literally creating a mess of the boat club lawns, agriculture’s share in India’s gross domestic product (GDP) was about 30%. About three decades later, the farm sector’s share in...