-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Pedal a stationary cycle for one hour and run two lights and a fan all day without grid electricity. American billionaire Manoj Bhargava claims he has the answer to India's rural electrification challenge, and he showed it at an event in Delhi on Friday. Lucknow-born Bhargava, founder of 5 Hour Energy, a popular energy drink in the US, styles himself as "entrepreneur and philanthropist" on Twitter....

-Business Standard Indian farming was transformed after the mid-60s, on a wave of new agri technology and allied changes, but the costs of this model can no longer be ignored or its addressing be postponed It was around the mid-1960s when the Paddock brothers, the ‘prophets of doom’, predicted that in another decade, recurring famines and an acute shortage of foodgrain would push India towards disaster.   Their prophecy was based on a...

-Hindustan Times Commerce minister Nirmala Sitharaman has said that the WTO will have to give a permanent solution to India’s food security issue. HT explains. * What has WTO got to do with food security? The World Trade Organisation was established in 1995 to facilitate trade among members, who now number at 161. The WTO facilitates trade through rounds of negotiations — there have been nine rounds till now, the latest being the...

-The Times of India AHMEDABAD: Poonam Vanzara, 15, a nomadic girl from Dahod, and a resident of Vatva in Ahmedabad, has not even been to school. She along with 14.93 lakh children in the age group of 6-18 years from Gujarat have never attended school. The census figures about attending education institute reveal that around 9.63% children and youth between 6-18 years have never attended the schools. Gujarat has 1.55 crore children...

-Hindustan Times Arsenic contamination is spreading fast in 12 states and beyond, with around one lakh people already dead and the chemical entering the food chain through farm products in the region, a committee of secretaries in a report to the government has said. The committee has also estimated that 7.04 crore people have been affected, with around three lakh people having arsenic-related diseases in the country. Of them, the report said,...