-The Business Standard     Foreign direct investment in the NGO sector is, in fact, no different from the cross-holdings and the FDI web of the corporate world  ClimateWorks, one of the two international non-governmental organisations (NGOs) recently restricted by the National Democratic Alliance government from funding Greenpeace India Society in India, also funds another NGO, Global International, which, till recently, was headed in India by Union Environment and Forests minister Prakash Javadekar. When...

-The Telegraph   New Delhi: Four activists claimed today that an Intelligence Bureau report that has named them for campaigning against genetically-modified (GM) crops appears to have been influenced by foreign organisations promoting GM crops. The activists, who have been campaigning either for tighter regulatory mechanisms for the assessment of GM crops or for a ban on the introduction of GM crops in India, said the IB report appears to support the introduction...

-PSainath.org   The adivasi women of Edamalakudi, Kerala's remotest panchayat, have formed a headload workers' group, helped light up their villages with solar power, and practice group farming in wild elephant territory. All are Muthavan tribals. Almost all are members of Kerala's extraordinary anti-poverty and gender justice movement - Kudumbashree. They are also neighbours of Chinnathambi, the keeper of the Wilderness Library. When 60 women in Edamalakudi carried about a hundred solar...

-The Hindu   There is a need for promotion of local varieties on a commercial scale, says expert Adilabad (Andhra Pradesh): Telangana government's commitment towards making the State a seed hub in the country has come at a juncture when commercial crops such as cotton have failed the farmers' expectations, but is witnessing a sharp increase in demand for organic and indigenous variety of food grains in the country. "The time seems to be...

-Down to Earth   Ask religious institutions to grow organic crops and accept organic crops as donation for langars In Pandori Ragsangh village in Amritsar, farmer leader Gurlal Singh takes a large sip of hot milk and asks fellow farmer, Jagdish Singh, about the "poison." "This year, there is too much of poison," Jagdish replies. It takes a while to understand that the farmers are discussing lethal pesticides used to grow wheat....