-Down to Earth Could diversify feedstock basket, help secure long-term sustainability with improved economics  Ethanol-blended petrol is regarded as one of the most acceptable alternative fuel blends for transportation; however, the use of molasses and broken grains for its production raises the question of food vs fuel. Second-generation (2G) bioethanol could help to secure long-term sustainability with improved economics for the Indian biofuel market.   Union Minister of State (Ministry of Science and...

-The Telegraph Experts say government measures facilitate supply of poor quality equipment and threaten to hobble country’s research efforts The Narendra Modi government’s Make-in-India campaign and e-marketplace initiative have stirred frustration among scientists who say these measures facilitate the supply of poor quality equipment and threaten to hobble the country’s research efforts. The Make-in-India campaign embedded in the Government-e-marketplace (GeM), a portal for online procurement, appears to have ignored the realities of India’s...

-IndiaSpend.com Even as the rural employment programme provides low wages, it is a source of income and opportunity for women who have few other avenues of work in rural India and face barriers in migrating out of the village for work Rajsamand, Rajasthan: The year that Chanchal Kumari was born was the year of the drought in Rajasthan--2002. For two years, the state had a severe water shortage--no water for drinking or...

-Press release by UNICEF dated 23 June, 2022 COVID-19 worsens global learning crisis, risking $21 trillion in lifetime earnings WASHINGTON: As a result of the worst shock to education and learning in recorded history, learning poverty has increased by a third in low- and middle-income countries, with an estimated 70 per cent of 10-year-olds unable to understand a simple written text, according to a new report published today by the World Bank,...

-Livemint.com Mahalanobis gave our data system global recognition and we must ask why we lost that credibility In the summer of 1946, at the ‘nuclear’ session of the United Nations Statistical Commission (UNSC), a representative of a British colony made an impassioned plea for laying down globally accepted standards for conducting large-scale sample surveys. Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis argued that household surveys would become invaluable data sources for many developing countries that were...