-Livemint.com While there has been progress in providing electricity to rural households, there have been no real efforts to improve the quality of power supply Delivering electricity to nearly every village in India has been one of the most celebrated achievements of the Narendra Modi government. However, a study by Sreekumar Nhalur and others published in the latest Economic and Political Weekly suggests it may be too soon to celebrate. The authors argue...

-The Hindu Business Line The gel, poly-Oxime has been prepared by InStem researchers from nucleophilic polymer New Delhi: Indian farmers usually do not wear any protective gear while spraying chemicals in fields. This exposes them to harmful toxics contained in pesticides, causing severe health impacts and even death in extreme cases. Indian scientists have now developed a protective gel to address this problem. The gel can be applied on skin and can break...

-The Hindu Genes tolerant to salinity and iron toxicity were put into another variety Scientists at the Rice Research Station of Kerala Agricultural University (KAU) at Vyttila have developed a new variety of paddy tolerant to saline intrusion, a major challenge faced by farmers in the lowlands. The landmark achievement in rice research was made possible by the introduction of genes tolerant to salinity and iron toxicity into Jyothi, Kerala’s most popular rice...

-The Hindu Despite growing clamour for pesticide-free produce, doubts persist about the capability of organic farming to generate high yields Kerala: Organic farming began finding momentum in Kerala since the unveiling of a policy in 2010 that set the goal of converting the entire agricultural production in the State to organic within 10 years. That policy announced by the then Left Democratic Front government is now being fast-tracked by the present United...

-The Hindu Implementation in a phased manner: Mohanan ALAPPUZHA (Kerala): Agriculture Minister K.P. Mohanan has said that the government is seriously considering a ban on use of chemical fertilizers in the State. He was inaugurating an exhibition-cum-sale of dairy, agricultural, and industrial products organised by the Chengannur block panchayat here on Wednesday evening. Mr. Mohanan said the government was mulling over implementing the ban in a phased manner from next year. He said a study...