-The Business Standard In the 90s, Mark Lynas was a most vocal critic of genetically modified (GM) technology. An author of books such as High Tide, Six Degrees: Our Future on a Hotter Planet and The God Species, he shocked the world when he later said he was wrong in opposing GM technology. In a lecture at the Oxford Farming Conference earlier this month, he apologised for vandalising field trials of...

-The Hindu The United Nations has been drawing attention in recent years to the growing burden of non-communicable diseases, which have been adding to morbidity and premature deaths in most countries. In a declaration issued at a high-level meeting in 2011, the U.N. argued that low and middle income countries should actively pursue public health policies that will reduce the incidence of NCDs arising from diabetes, hypertension, high cholesterol, and a...

-The Times of India The government has diluted its stand on requiring consent from tribals before handing over their forestlands for projects in an affidavit filed before the Supreme Court on the Vedanta case. The changed policy cited in the affidavit of the government, contrary to existing Regulations, could now make it easy for hundreds of other projects as well which require formal consent from tribals who have rights over forestlands under...

-IANS The Supreme Court Tuesday expressed its concern over the deteriorating sex ratio and chided state governments over their failure to check sex determination clinics and punish law violators fuelling female foeticide. "People have a belief that if they don't have a male child they will go to narak (hell)", the court said, asking "where is this narak"? The Pre-natal Diagnostic Techniques (Regulation and Prevention) Act, 1994, bans determination of the sex of...

-Live Mint High court asks state to review law in light of proposed national Regulations to govern the sector The Andhra Pradesh high court on Monday upheld a law that led to the near demise of the microfinance industry towards the end of 2010, but asked the state government to review the legislation in the light of proposed national Regulations to govern the sector.   News of the review sent the stock of the...