-PTI KENDRAPARA: With the harvesting of paddy crop drawing near, the age-old practice of 'Badalia', a system of exchanging labour services prevalent in coastal districts, is showing signs of revival in some pockets of Odisha. A small and marginal farmer like Jugal Kishore Lenka is all set to work in a fellow farmer's plot during harvesting to cut down his need for cash in the post-demonetisation scenario. Together with Sudam Sahu, a fellow...

-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...

-PTI ‘This exciting project will make South Asia’s rich and vibrant printed heritage accessible to everyone’ A new British Library project will digitise 4,000 early printed Bengali books, amounting to more than 800,000 pages, as part of the U.K. India Year of Culture plans for 2017. The digitisation project is part of a wider “Two Centuries of Indian Print” project, an international partnership led by the British Library with funding from the Newton...

-The Telegraph Paradip: For Jugal Kishore Lenka, a marginal farmer from Goda village in Erasama block of Jagatsinghpur district, badalia, the once popular system of exchange of labour, has come as a big relief. Cash strapped by demonetisation, he was worried about labour payments for harvesting his paddy. Now, he has entered into a badalia arrangement with fellow farmer Sudam Sahu, who is also looking for labour for paddy harvesting. They can now exchange...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: The Union home ministry today barred a non-government organisation run by a Narendra Modi-critic from receiving foreign funds, revoking its FCRA licence and that of three others for alleged "undesirable activities against public interest". The action, which drew accusations that the government was trying to stifle voices of dissent, means Anhad, run by Shabnam Hashmi, the Marwar Muslim Educational and Welfare Society, and the Gujarat-based Navsarjan Trust and...