If environmental degradation disturbs you and you are averse to reading technical manuals and copious volumes on the subject, there is some good news for you.    A recently published book from Gene Campaign entitled Coping with Climate Change is doing the rounds among environmentalists, civil society activists, public servants and researchers. Edited by Dr. Suman Sahai, the book has been written in a coffee book style to make easy serious...

-The Hindu Business Line Not the RBI, going by the revised priority sector lending norms, which will further reduce credit to the marginalised Prime Minister Narendra Modi has often expressed his sense of anguish at the plight of farmers. In a recent statement in the Lok Sabha, he noted that the agriculture community’s problems were “old, deep-rooted and widespread”, and stated that farmers cannot be left to fend for themselves. Implicit in that...

-The Indian Express Government should devise a crop-neutral incentive structure to attract farmers to pulses over paddy.  Policymakers and consumers can rejoice in the light of the latest price data. Food inflation in particular has witnessed significant moderation. In May 2015, food prices were up by only 2.3 per cent at wholesale and 5 per cent at retail levels over May last year. The increases in minimum support prices for the...

-The Economic Times NEW DELHI: The rapid warming in the Indian Ocean is weakening the monsoon, particularly over central India where agriculture is still mostly rain-fed, a study by meteorologists at the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology shows. The weakening trend in summer rainfall during 1901-2012 was also observed over the centraleast and northern regions of India, along the Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna basins and the Himalayan foothills. This will include states of Uttar Pradesh,...

-The Hindu ‘They juggle multiple tasks and are often unable to vent their frustration’ Fifteen people commit suicide every hour in India, shows the most recent data by the National Crime Records Bureau. Of these, around 17 per cent are housewives. In contrast, suicide by farmers makes up only 3 per cent of all suicides. The NCRB divides the total suicides into 10 professional categories — housewife, service (government), service (private), public sector...