-The Indian Express Agriculture education is in a poor state. ICAR must be revamped Although autarky on Indian farms is a distant dream, as the 71st year of Independence dawns, penury-ridden farmers are still committing suicide by the thousands— a consequence of decades of short-sightedness, while economists and scientists are still equating food sufficiency to farmer sustainability. The occasion merits introspection on the core issues of farmers’ distress. We must begin at the...

-PTI ‘North central region seeing much wetter pattern, with stronger monsoons over the last 15 years’ Washington: Monsoon has strengthened over north central India in the last 15 years, researchers from the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have said, indicating a reversal in the general perception that the region has dried up in over a decade. Chien Wang, a senior research scientist in MIT’s Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences, the...

MG Road is seldom considered as a safe place for working women who travel for work to either Gurgaon or Delhi. Almost everyday untoward incidents related to molestation, sexual harassment, kidnapping or rape that occur here are reported in various NCR-based newspapers. Clearly, safety of women office-goers and female workers is one of the major determinants of their (low) labour force participation, even in urban locations like Gurgaon or Delhi....

-Livemint.com Activists who are ideologically opposed to genetically modified crop technology have unleashed a virulent campaign to stall the GM Mustard cultivation Seven-and-a-half years ago, BT Brinjal, developed by two public agricultural universities, was approved for commercial cultivation by the genetic engineering approval committee (GEAC), a statutory body. BT Brinjal is inherently resistant to the notorious fruit and shoot borer (FSB) pest and therefore produces a marketable crop without the large number...

-The Hindu Dumping of solid waste has badly affected five river basins in the State Thiruvananthapuram (Kerala): Microbial contamination due to sewage discharge and dumping of solid waste has affected the water quality in five river basins in Kerala, highlighting the need for stricter monitoring and management of water resources. The findings have been published by the Centre for Water Resources Development and Management (CWRDM) based on a study of the Mogral, Chittari...