-Down to Earth From providing agricultural information for specific countries to identifying trends in the sector, censuses serve a variety of purpose In the backdrop of a round of country-driven agricultural censuses which will begin in 2016 to gather information and statistics on the global agriculture sector, senior FAO statiscian Jairo Castano discusses with Down To Earth the importance of the exercise. * How helpful are agricultural censuses in gathering information and statistics...

-The Hindu Beef production uses more water and land and emits more greenhouse gases than other livestock A recent recommendation of the World Health Organization (WHO) has declared red meat a carcinogen. Processed meats are the major culprit, and are a Class-1 carcinogen, which means that the evidence linking consumption to cancer is strong. Red meats are in a lower category, 2A, which means consumption is probably linked to cancer, specifically colorectal cancer....

-DNA Wondering about the plight of the rural population facing successive droughts which has to buy pulses, South Asia Network for Dams, Rivers and People (SANDRP) laments how no benefit of the price hike is reaching actual pulse farmers. While most link the current tur (pigeon pea) dal crisis with raging market prices, storage issues, hoarding and economics, a new study highlighting the making of the crisis - by South Asia Network...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: India has pledged to generate 40 per cent of all its electricity from non-fossil fuel sources by 2030 as part of its efforts to curb its earth-warming Greenhouse Gas emissions. In its submission to the UN climate change agency tonight, the Indian government has also announced plans to reduce its Greenhouse Gas emissions intensity by 33 to 35 per cent by 2030 from the 2005 level. India is among...

-The Times of India India and her neighbors are going through a tortuous process of urbanization - slow, messy and partly hidden. This is seen in severe problems of livability and congestion, making cities unattractive for rural migrants. As a result, whatever benefits urban agglomerations could have offered in terms of economic advance are getting diluted. This is the dire analysis of a 200-page World Bank report on urbanization in South...