-The Times of India NEW DELHI: While the enormous health benefits of universal and sustained breastfeeding of children are well known, new evidence suggests that there is a significant economic cost as well. Research by medical journal Lancet reports a loss of $0.6285 billion or about Rs 4,300 crore annually. Not just that. If India were to universalise breastfeeding in the coming years, it could reduce 13% of all under-5 deaths...

-Down to Earth The debt in rural households is higher, even though their total assets are lesser than urban households   A new survey by the National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) shows that rural households have higher debts than their urban counterparts. At the same time, an urban household owns more than double the asset than that of a rural household. A rural household, on an average, owned assets of Rs 10...

-Hindustan Times In Bollywood romcoms, mustard fields glowing iridescent yellow are an oft-used backdrop for romantic songs. Remember the iconic 1995 hit, Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge Mustard, as it were, is an onscreen metaphor for vigour and youthful passion. However, looked through a farm scientist’s lens, the traditional Indian mustard isn’t genetically very impressive. It is only half as robustly growing as its east European cousins. Low yields mean India has to...

-Frontline.in An initiative focussed on Kerala’s development experience exposes a worrying trend of rising inequality and proposes a strategy for sustainable and equitable growth. THE fourth international Congress on Kerala Studies, organised by the A.K.G. Centre for Study and Research in Thiruvananthapuram on January 9-10, has generated much interest for its focus on a worrying new trend in Kerala’s development experience: rising inequality and marginalisation of large sections of people despite...

-Business Standard India's agriculture growth, measured in terms of gross value added at constant prices, slipped into negative territory in the October-December quarter (first time in FY16) because of a low kharif harvest. However, on full-year basis, the government estimates gross value added in agriculture and allied activities would rise 1.1 per cent, from negative 0.2 per cent in 2014-15, on account of good performance of livestock, horticulture, fisheries and dairy sector. But...