-Livemint.com Pulses are important from the perspectives of food security, environmental sustainability and balanced nutrition Most pulses such as pigeon pea (tur dal), black gram (urad), green gram (mung), field beans (waal), moth beans (matki) and horse gram (kulith) are native to the Indian subcontinent and have been an integral part of our diet for centuries. However, the single-minded focus on cereals over the last 50 years—the green revolution in wheat and...

-The Hindu Health-care workers at the primary level must be given the knowledge and skills to provide NCD and associated risk factor care. Noncommunicable diseases (NCD) such as diabetes, respiratory diseases, cancer and heart diseases are taking a severe toll on public health across the WHO South-East Asia Region. Approximately 8.5 million lives, many of them premature, are lost each year due to NCDs, making them the region’s leading cause of death...

-The Indian Express Govt must learn from mistakes in onions and potatoes, agriculture should be spared of bearing the burden of its inflation targeting. Last week, Union Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced a 5% subsidy on onion exports in the form of transferable duty credit scrips that can be used to pay customs, excise or service tax. On top of it, the Maharashtra government extended a Rs 100 per quintal grant to...

-Livemint.com August saw good rains in northern and eastern regions while peninsula, parts of central India remained mostly dry New Delhi: The southwest monsoon was 3% short of its long-term average till the end of August, India’s weather office said on Thursday. Around 87% of the country has received normal to excess rainfall so far. Including 1 September, the shortfall has come down to 2%. August saw good rains in the country’s northern...

-The Telegraph Cuttack: The threat of extinction looms large over the state's natural fish stocks in rivers and lakes because of unregulated inland fishing during the breeding season. The impact of unrestricted fishing is already being felt in the state's rivers, especially in the Mahanadi. There has reportedly been a drastic downslide in fish catch. The annual freshwater fish production in the state is around three lakh tonnes. While 87 per cent fishes...