-PTI May 23 notification not “to influence food habits, or affect slaughtering business”, the Union Environment Minister says. The government on Sunday said it was open to suggestions from various groups on the May 23 cattle slaughter notification and was not viewing it as a prestige issue. Speaking to reporters here, Environment Minister Harsh Vardhan said the intention behind the notification was not to harm any particular group, influence food habits or affect...

-The Indian Express More than half of all Class XII students in the country who scored (exactly) 95 per cent in English (Core) this year are from private schools in the Delhi region, an analysis of the results by an engineer based in New York has found. While the jury is still out on whether the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) abandoned the practice of grade inflation this year, one number...

-TheWire.in Farmers are once again wondering which crop will fetch them guaranteed good returns. Nagpur: What do you grow on your farm in the coming season that will fetch you good returns? This is a question millions of peasant farmers, particularly those with small holdings and no protective irrigation, are likely to ask themselves this month, possibly with no answers. They’ll go back to what they have been growing on their fields thus far,...

-Hindustan Times To begin with, it is imperative that the government and the ruling coalition acknowledge the challenge, and not be dismissive about it. Ambiguous expressions such as “promoting self-employment” do not help. It is difficult to disagree when BJP president Amit Shah says it’s impossible to provide jobs to everyone in a country of 1.25 billion people. It is also equally absurd to agree with him that reports of rising unemployment...

-The Hindu Business Line Crop gets Rs. 50,000 to Rs. 1 lakh per quintal Jaipur: As part of its crop diversification efforts, Rajasthan will encourage over 50,000 farmers to take up cultivation of super foodgrain quinoa this year, said State Agriculture and Animal Husbandry Minister Prabhu Lal Saini. Rajasthan State Seeds Corporation, which engaged some farmers to grow quinoa seeds on an experimental basis, has managed to raise over 20,000 quintals of seed...