-Press Release by Right to Food Campaign The Right to Food Campaign demands justice for pregnant women and their infants. For more than four years, all Indian women except those working in government/public sector undertakings have been entitled by law to a maternity benefit of at least Rs. 6000, guaranteed under the National Food Security Act (NFSA, 2013). Yet, the government of India not only has failed to deliver this entitlement...

-Business StaNDArd The Budget allocation for Ministry of Agriculture and allied activities has grown by 114% since 2010-11 As Finance Minister Arun Jaitley gets down to deliver his fifth annual Budget for the 2018-19 financial year, all eyes will be on his announcements for the rural sector which is going through a downturn in the last few years. Two consecutive droughts along with a sharp fall in incomes have turned agriculture unprofitable...

-Scroll.in The ‘Plastic Man of India’ has found a way to reuse plastic waste and to make durable roads. A 73-year-old retired chemistry professor from the Thiagarajar Engineering College in Madurai was on Thursday named as one of the 73 recipients of the Padma Shri, the government’s fourth highest civilian honour. Rajagopalan Vasudevan is known as the “Plastic Man of India” for devising an innovative way of disposing of plastic waste...

-Scroll.in Doctors say that this could discourage others from donating their organs. In 2009, Dr Ravi Wankhede, a pathologist and resident of Nagpur, donated one of his kidneys to a friend. Wankhede saved his friend’s life but his altruism might have cost him his health insurance. When Wankhede turned 65 two years ago, his health insurance company told him that his policy could not be renewed because the company does not cover...

-TheWire.in In The Vanishing Stepwells of India, Victoria Lautman articulates how a traditional water conservation system was foolishly destroyed when the British took the reins. It is not difficult to comprehend the importance of water conservation. The resource is as precious and far more valuable than gold. Water will always be scarce and in arid, dry regions, the liquid is worshipped. It is an integral element in rituals that manifest faith. All...