-The Economic Times The trend in Plan spending so far is disheartening. Actual expenditure during the first five months of the current fiscal year amounted to about 28% of the budgeted spending of Rs 5,21,025 crore for this fiscal - the lowest proportion recorded over the last five years. Ministries and departments are said to be willing to surrender unspent money, rather than take decisions that they fear could be questioned by...

-The Hindu Business Line Pushpa M. Bhargava, former Vice-Chairman of National Knowledge Commission, has defended the recommendations of the technical committee, appointed by the Supreme Court, which called for a moratorium on the field trials of genetically modified crops. “The recommendations are in consonance with the increasing evidence and awareness in the two American continents where over 90 per cent of the world’s GM crops are grown that the increasing health problems...

-The Economic Times The fear of drought in India has abated with late precipitation of the monsoon in September this year. However, the country continues to suffer from a drought of formalised tabulated data of agro items on a real-time or monthly basis, though many estimates continue to fatigue the print and electronic media.  Red or green prices flashing on computer screens are taken for 'granted', but the discovery of future or...

Environmentalists, civil society groups and scientists working with marginal farmers have welcomed recommendation of the Supreme Court appointed Technical Expert Committee (TEC) placing a 10-year moratorium on field trials of GM crops in India. The TEC freeze advice includes field trials of Bt transgenics in all food crops which are used directly for human Consumption. (See links below for the actual report and more details) The TEC, which was appointed in...

-The Hindu Tamil Nadu’s Solar Energy Policy can go a long way in addressing the supply-demand mismatch The State’s solar initiative can draw on the strengths of its robust wind power programme Is the sun the answer to Tamil Nadu’s power crisis? With the unveiling of the Solar Energy Policy last week, Tamil Nadu joins the long list of States trying to find a way of harnessing this source of renewable energy...