-The Indian Express Onion farmers have suffered even in a bumper crop year. Needed: Scientific storage facilities, a judicious trade policy. Onions are, once again, in the news. Last week, retail prices touched Rs 50/kg in several markets, and wholesale prices touched Rs 30/kg in major onion markets like Lasalgaon in Maharashtra. This is not the first time that onion prices have spiked. Almost every alternate year, this roller-coaster of boom and...

-The Telegraph Calcutta: A Calcutta High Court judge on Friday questioned the "reliability" of the Bengal government's dengue death report after a petitioner named four people who purportedly died of the disease but were not on the government's list furnished on Thursday. "What is the reliability of the government's report, then?" Justice Arijit Banerjee asked advocate-general Kishore Dutta after going through the four death certificates, each of which read "dengue NS1 Antigen...

-The Financial Express Every year, the onset of winter in Delhi unfailingly brings to the fore the burning of paddy residue in Punjab and Haryana, given the practice contributes significantly to the national capital’s air pollution woes, with severe consequences for public health. According to an IIT study, 17% of the PM 10 load and 26% of the PM 2.5 load in October-November in Delhi can be attributed to post-monsoon crop...

-The Hindu Business Line The recent deaths in Maharashtra once again affirm that highly toxic agrochemicals are freely sold across the counter Last month about 40 farmers died and more than 700 were hospitalised in Maharashtra due pesticide poisoning. Initial reports suggest that the deaths are due to monochrotophos. This is a highly toxic chemical that has been banned in more than 60 countries but is still allowed to be sold in...

-The Hindu If we oppose every solution to the problem of air pollution, how will we ever breathe clean air, asks the environmentalist Environmentalist Sunita Narain has been fighting for clean air for decades. The Delhi-based Centre for Science and Environment, with which she has been associated and now serves as director general, led the shift to compressed natural gas in Delhi, to reduce air pollution. Ms. Narain is on the statutory...