-Outlook Environmentalist and author Mark Lynas now says GM crops are the answer to global food security. Vandana Shiva disagrees. The already heated debate about genetically modified (GM) foods in India has intensified thanks to a dramatic change in stance by environmentalist and author Mark Lynas,who now says GM crops are the answer to global food security. While India awaits two crucial reports on the topic, we interviewed Lynas and noted...

-The Indian Express ASER’s findings highlight the dismal state of school education. Improving teacher training programmes could lead to better outcomes I remember Rukmini Banerji of Pratham telling us in 2005 that ASER the Annual Status of Education Report — will be a national survey that will hold up a mirror to the condition of education in India and shake us into urgent action. For nine years now, every January, ASER is...

-The Times of India Every few days, Rajkumar Sharma, manager of a group housing society in Noida, makes the mandatory trip to the nearby petrol pump to pick up his quota of diesel. A few days back, even as he was on his 'diesel duty' as he calls it, he was making some quick back-of-the-envelope calculations. "Our average monthly consumption is around 400 litres which means a monthly expenditure of around...

-The Hindu The approval for large-scale induction of women personnel into the Delhi Police is being described by many as a knee-jerk reaction to the public outrage over the gang-rape and murder of a 23-year-old physiotherapy student last month. However, whether the move would make any significant change depends entirely on the degree of sensitivity shown by all the stakeholders and efficient handling of police investigations into crimes against women, particularly rape...

-The Indian Express Allegations of saffronisation of school textbooks in BJP-ruled Karnataka have reached the Centre with demands for a thorough probe into “academically poor and saffronised textbooks with many a distortion and misrepresentation”. The Committee for Resisting Saffronisation of Education has submitted a memorandum to the NCERT as well as to Human Resource Development Minister Pallam Raju alleging that the new textbooks released for class V and VIII by the Karnataka...