-The Telegraph   The European Union has banned the import of Indian mangoes as they failed to pass its stringent biosecurity regulations. Does India too need tougher biosecurity laws to protect its crops from pests and diseases? When a few pesky fruit flies tried to migrate from India, they ended up sparking a debate on the effectiveness of India's agricultural biosecurity laws and regulations. While some agriculture experts believe the laws are...

-Down to Earth   Study published in The Lancet indicates what the country will need to spend to provide basic cancer Screening and care to patients A report published in the international journal, The Lancet, has drawn attention to poor infrastructure and treatment facilities for cancer patients in India, which is leading to high cancer mortality. To deliver even a basic cancer Screening and treatment package in rural India, 15 states would need to...

-The Hindu Long list of agents against free expression Censorship across the country is on the rise with as many as 52 instances being recorded in the first quarter of 2014. Releasing data on censorship for the first three months of this year, media watch group, The Hoot, said this averaged a little less than one a day. The agents against free expression were not just the state or fringe groups. The...

-The Hindu     To screen developmental delays and disabilities in children THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The departments of Health and Social Justice are launching a major joint initiative to tackle childhood disabilities through the early identification of developmental delays and disabilities and early interventions so that these conditions do not become permanent or debilitating. District Early Intervention Centres (DEICs) will soon be opened in every district hospital and this will be the first point of Screening for...

-Down to Earth Japan's Sapporo brewery patents Indian barley gene without giving benefit to farmers Ballia district, the easternmost part of Uttar Pradesh, is a flood-prone area that extends towards Bihar from the confluence of the Ganga and the Ghaghra. Over decades, its farmers, mostly marginal and small, have been cultivating barley, exchanging its seeds, improving the varieties and giving these to a government project to cull the best of the lot....