-The Hindu Business Line The gel, poly-Oxime has been prepared by InStem researchers from nucleophilic polymer New Delhi: Indian farmers usually do not wear any protective gear while spraying chemicals in fields. This exposes them to harmful toxics contained in pesticides, causing severe health impacts and even death in extreme cases. Indian scientists have now developed a protective gel to address this problem. The gel can be applied on skin and can break...

-The Times of India PATIALA: When smoke from burning paddy stubble was choking Delhi last year, one small village near Nabha in Punjab was doing its bit to keep the air clean. Not a straw was burnt in Kalar Majra, where 60 families farm about 700 acres. “The government chose our village as a model, and gave all the machinery needed to manage the crop residue,” says Bir Dalvinder Singh, a Kalar...

-Newsclick.in Actions of individual women are a brave step forward, but a larger social movement is needed to bring justice for millions of not so privileged women. In recent weeks, #MeToo protests have shaken up the media and Bollywood worlds, with one case – MJ Akbar’s – spilling into the political domain since he was an editor earlier but now graces the Modi govt. as a minister. The women who have...

-Down to Earth Debt-ridden farmers have to either rent or buy the machines, which pose several threats to their next crop Hamir Singh, 53, who holds a 14-acre farm in Kalajhar village in Sangrur district of Punjab, had decided to toe the line, but didn’t work for him. He followed the ban on crop residue burning and tried using new technology like the rotavator, which has rotating blades that chop the straw...

-Livemint.com The production of ‘mahua’ is finally entering the formal economy as new initiatives seek to upscale this indigenous drink, selling it across the country and even the globe It is a cloudy morning in Nangur village in Bastar district, Chattisgarh. It is a settlement of a little over 400 families, considered fairly large in these parts. We make a bumpy journey down a narrow, unpaved road intermittently shaded by sargi (sal)...