-Economic and Political Weekly While the Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers' Rights Act 2001 is a progressive piece of legislation that recognises farmers' rights to seed, it demands payment of an annual maintenance fee by the farmers to protect the varieties which they have been cultivating and conserving for years, only because these varieties have been brought under legal protection through national legislation. Parameswaran Prajeesh (prajeesh@mssrf.res.in) is a researcher with the...

-The Times of India CHENNAI: The industrial sector has been taking the flak for emitting high levels of hazardous gases over the years but it might ultimately be our homes that are responsible for the highest emission of greenhouse gases. A recently published study conducted by the Centre for Ecological Sciences of the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, found that the domestic sector was one of the highest contributing factors to greenhouse...

-The Financial Express Data from the Socio-Economic and Caste Census (SECC) 2011 may help states finding it difficult to identify beneficiaries under the National Food Security Act and put their names online, reports Sandip Das in New Delhi. However, given that SECC final numbers, which ranks households based on their socio-economic status, are currently available for only 119 of the country's 640 districts, the Centre's plan to roll out the NFSA...

-The Indian Express It is easy to see why the Unique Identity (UID) project, also known as Aadhaar, has caught the imagination of many administrators, economists and policymakers. Identity verification is a routine problem in India and Aadhaar sounds like a foolproof solution. The idea is really smart and the technology is cutting-edge. After the initial hurdle of universal enrolment, numerous applications are possible: monitoring the attendance of government employees, linking...

-The Hindu Business Line New Delhi: Prices of vegetables and pulses are set to shoot up after unseasonal rain damaged over 50 lakh hectares of standing crops across the country, putting enormous strain on household budgets. Consumers will have to pay more for potatoes, carrots, cabbages, mustard and almost all the pulses over the next few weeks. Rain in northern, central and western parts has caused widespread damage to crops in Punjab,...