-RuralIndiaOnline.org J. Adaikalaselvi, a farmer in Ramanathapuram, Tamil Nadu’s top chilli -producing district, takes us through the hurdles in producing the lucrative crop: price fluctuations, water scarcity and climate change There’s a small cloud of dust, and the phut-phut of an engine: Adaikalaselvi comes riding on a bike, wearing a blue saree, a big nose ring, and a wide smile. A few minutes earlier, she had instructed us – from her chilli...

-Down to Earth Scanty rainfall, heat up to 48°C mar paddy prospects    Punjab has been able to BRIng only 77,000 hectares (ha) under direct-seeded rice (DSR) through June 30 this year, way below the 1.2 million ha (mha) it targetted. This is also substantially less than last year’s 0.6 mha and 0.5 mha in 2020. High temperatures and deficient rainfall are mainly to blame, said farmers. Other challenges included closed canals, erratic...

-The Hindu Business Line A holistic approach, involving panchayats, community organisations, civil society and industry, is the best way forward Science is certain that persistence of under-nutrition creates irreversible changes in the learning abilities of many infants, besides susceptibility to disease as they grow. The first thousand days are the key to reversing changes and ensuring proper nutritional development of every infant and mother. The Fifth National Family Health Survey 2019-21 (NFHS-5)...

-Press release by UNICEF dated 23 June, 2022 COVID-19 worsens global learning crisis, risking $21 trillion in lifetime earnings WASHINGTON: As a result of the worst shock to education and learning in recorded history, learning poverty has increased by a third in low- and middle-income countries, with an estimated 70 per cent of 10-year-olds unable to understand a simple written text, according to a new report published today by the World Bank,...

-Livemint.com Mahalanobis gave our data system global recognition and we must ask why we lost that credibility In the summer of 1946, at the ‘nuclear’ session of the United Nations Statistical Commission (UNSC), a representative of a BRItish colony made an impassioned plea for laying down globally accepted standards for conducting large-scale sample surveys. Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis argued that household surveys would become invaluable data sources for many developing countries that were...