-The Hindu Business Line Thiruvananthapuram: All available indications now point to the washout of the North-East monsoon in the Peninsula, after the drubbing it received during the preceding South-West monsoon. With half of November gone and no prospects of any major pick-up in rain during the rest of the month, there is little that the last month of December can possibly bring in. What looked a like a brief revival in activity early...

-The Times of India ERODE: People in eight villages surrounding the Vellode bird sanctuary in the district do not burst crackers during Diwali. They have upheld this for the last 17 years as they fear that its loud sound might scare away the migratory birds. About 750 families live in the eight villages surrounding the Vellode bird sanctuary, established in 1996 in 80 hectares of land. They decided not to burst crackers...

-The Indian Express The opposition’s main contention is that the GM mustard hybrid incorporates three alien genes — barnase, barstar and bar — rendering it inherently unsafe for human and animal health. Fifty years ago, Union Minister for Food and Agriculture Chidambaram Subramaniam took the decision to import 18,000 tonnes of seeds of Lerma Rojo 64A and Sonora 64 wheat from Mexico. The seeds arrived just in time for their planting in...

-Hindustan Times For Martina George, 21, putting together Rs 20 lakh to pursue a degree in Medicine in Australia would have been impossible. “Coming from a middle-class background, my family couldn’t pay that amount,” George says. So, instead, her community stepped in. The Bombay Catholic Panchayat and a church from Kerala contributed with a loan and scholarship to meet those expenses. “My school and junior college education in India was almost free...

-The Indian Express An enduring solution to India’s water woes lies in buffer stocking during monsoon months and release during lean seasons. Till June end this year, the government was worried about how to cope with back-to-back drought. But by the second half of August, the scene changed dramatically and several states were in the spate of floods. In Bihar, more than five million people have been affected and 6,50,000 displaced from...