-The Telegraph New Delhi: Schoolchildren who engage more enthusiastically in classroom discussions and read stuff beyond textbooks are likelier to learn better than others, an analysis of the results of a survey has revealed. "Asking questions and participating in classroom discussions enhances the chances of better performance by 14.5 points," Indrani Bhaduri, head of the education survey division at the NCERT, said. (See chart)   "Reading newspapers, magazines, novels and other literature apart...

-The Hindu Business Line Middlemen can hike prices but producers lose margins Ahmedabad/ New Delhi: With the sharp increase in fuel prices punching holes in agricultural incomes, a section of farmers are reviewing the mechanisation options. Diesel prices are up one-fourth over corresponding time last year. "The cost including transportation and pump-sets operation works out to about 25 per cent of the cost of production in various crops. Fuel costs are going up...

-The Indian Express Closure of Sterlite plant says something about our collective morality: Death, violence move governments more than reason and evidence It took a brazen exercise of what sociologists since Max Weber refer to as the state’s “monopoly of violence” by Tamil Nadu authorities to bring our attention to a problem that had been affecting the local residents of Tuticorin for over two decades. Since this tragic incident, it took hardly...

-The Indian Express India’s pulses production increased by nearly half in the space of two years, from 16-17 million tonnes to 23-24 million tonnes this year New Delhi: Till recently, there were two agri-commodities in which India was seen as being perpetually and increasingly import-dependent: edible oils and pulses. Between 2010-11 and 2016-17, the import value of the former soared from $4.72 billion to $10.89 billion, while from $2.25 billion to $4.24...

-IndiaToday.in Chennai: Almost a week after, 13 people were killed in the gruesome violence that gripped Tamil Nadus Tuticorin in protest against Sterlite plant, Madras High Court today ordered re-postmortem of seven bodies. The court ordered the re-postmortem after petioners alleged tampering of evidence. The court has mandated that a doctor from All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) or Jawaharlal Nehru Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research (JIPMER) or Kerala Insititute...