-The Telegraph New Delhi: Five years after sequencing the pigeonpea genome, Indian scientists have identified Madhya Pradesh as the centre of origin of this nationwide staple legume and discovered genes they say will allow the expansion of pigeonpea cultivation. Scientists at the International Crops Research Institute for Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) near Hyderabad and their collaborators in Australia, China and the US yesterday announced the results of a new study that has traced...

-Scroll.in/ Business Standard Previous attempts to organise 2.8 million employees of the country's IT sector have failed In 2008, as Tamil Nadu erupted in angry protests against the killings of Sri Lankan Tamils during that country’s civil war, a group of young software professionals in Chennai’s Tidel Park banded together to form a human chain. “Stop the War, Save Tamils” was their demand – a slogan that feaTured on posters, T-shirts and...

-Livemint.com Experts say a government-sponsored pledge loan scheme could still help Maharashtra tide over the Tur crisis and provide relief to farmers Could Maharashtra government and the Centre have mitigated Maharashtra’s Tur (pigeon pea) crisis by facilitating and encouraging pledge loans? Yes, say farm sector experts, bankers, warehouse industry officials and former government officials. Pledge loans are loans secured by farmers from banks against their farm produce deposited at a warehouse. Timely government intervention...

-IANS Crimes from murders to rapes to dacoities to caste conflicts and communal tensions Lucknow: Two months is not a long time in politics to fall from grace, especially when a landslide of public support has propelled you to power. But in Uttar Pradesh, the honeymoon period of the Yogi Adityanath-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government seems to have been spiked by a series of incidents of heinous crimes and law and order...

-Livemint.com One-off gains from Income Disclosure Scheme 2016 call for scepticism about any immediate claims of demonetisation having widened India’s income tax net News reports have quoted government officials making claims about a record increase in the number of income tax payers in 2016-17. Should such claims be seen as a success of demonetisation in forcing unscrupulous individuals to become a part of income tax net? An analysis of direct tax collection...