-The News Minute Rice Diversity Blocks in Kerala and five other states preserve over 1,000 indigenous varieties of rice that were at risk of being lost. In the Indian subcontinent, the birthplace of paddy, the colours of the crop’s many varieties are as diverse as the land, its people, languages, cultures, costumes, dialects and so on. But most of that variety was lost, when farmers were asked to forgo indigenous varieties...

-The Indian Express Credit, payment in old notes from grain commission agents ensures normal rabi planting operations. Jalandhar: Punjab farmers have so far got only about Rs 19,350 crore, out of the Rs 24,915 crore that was due for the 16.50 million tonnes paddy they had supplied to government agencies in the recent kharif procurement season at the minimum support price (MSP) of Rs 1,510 per quintal. But even with pending payments of...

-The Indian Express According to him, the currency shortage in the country is unlikely to ease any time in the near future. Mumbai: India’s former Chief Economic Advisor and former chief economist of the World Bank, Kaushik Basu has warned the government that the economy would take a turn for the worse next year besides greater suffering for people in the days ahead and of a new form of corruption building...

-The Hindu Biodiversity integration into developmental plans is crucial for sustainable development In a ‘Mann Ki Baat’ broadcast recently, Prime Minister Narendra Modi made his environmental concerns clear when he asked people to use Ganesha and Durga idols made of clay instead of plaster of Paris. His appeal is bound to stimulate our environmental consciousness and encourage the preservation of precious natural resources. We need to build on this appeal and follow...

-Livemint.com Latest data released by ministry of agriculture shows that sowing of rabi crops, expected to be higher than last year, is still lower than normal area sown That demonetisation will cause Indian economic growth to slow is no longer a matter of speculation. While clear estimates of the extent of deceleration will only emerge after some time, preliminary estimates of automobile sales and the purchasing managers’ index (PMI) for manufacturing...