-Bangalore Mirror The issue of encroachments in Devammachi Reserved Forests in Diddalli, Kodagu has thankfully evoked a balanced response from political leaders cutting across party lines. The Chief Minister, the District Minister, the Member of Parliament and the Virajpet MLA have all taken a clear stand that such fresh forest encroachments cannot be permitted while maintaining that poor people would be rehabilitated outside. However, the ill informed actions and statements of...

-Hindustan Times Low-cost State-sponsored food schemes are mushrooming across India. Inspired by Tamil Nadu’s Amma Canteens – where meals are sold for as little as Rs. 5 - Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Telangana and Rajasthan have followed suit and started similar canteens in their states. Madhya Pradesh too is planning to launch a similar subsidised food scheme. The growth of such canteens across India underscores several issues related to the Right to...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: How does marriage affect a woman's job prospects, and later, how does she negotiate issues like the number of children and their gender? Recently released Census 2011 data offers some interesting insights. Among those in the child-bearing age of 15-49 years, married women are more likely to be working than unmarried women. Those with regular jobs are also likely to have fewer children. But there is...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: Faculty and scholars from some of India's leading science and engineering institutions have published academic papers in so-called "predatory journals" - online publications that accept poor-quality papers without adequate peer review, an analysis has found. The finding reflects what some scientists say is a lack of institutional initiatives to curb poor-quality or junk research. The analysis of 3,300 academic papers from India in predatory journals has found that while...

-The News Minute Rice Diversity Blocks in Kerala and five other states preserve over 1,000 indigenous varieties of rice that were at risk of being lost. In the Indian subcontinent, the birthplace of paddy, the colours of the crop’s many varieties are as diverse as the land, its people, languages, cultures, costumes, dialects and so on. But most of that variety was lost, when farmers were asked to forgo indigenous varieties...