-Livemint.com/ Bloomberg Foreign exchange reserves dropped by $5.14 billion in the seven days ended October 12, the biggest weekly decline since November 2011, as the RBI stepped up action to prop up the rupee Mumbai: India made the biggest dent in its foreign exchange reserves in seven years as the central bank stepped up action to prop up Asia’s worst-performing currency. Reserves dropped by $5.14 billion in the seven days ended October 12,...

-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...

-Outlook Cases of arrest of Adivasis collecting forest produce for their livelihood abound in the area and they lived in constant fear of being dispossessed of their land. Now with the FRA’s legal force on their side, their struggle for their land continues. Ten years after he first filed his claim under the Forest Rights Act (FRA), Tentulipadar forest rights committee president Jama Majhi is still waiting for a paper declaring his...

-Livemint.com The concerns about the downsides of these schemes are overblown, and they could go some way in alleviating rural woes Since the Union Budget 2018-19, there has been a great deal of discussion in the public domain regarding the health of the rural sector. We believe that the rural sector needs some policy intervention, be it price support or income support. As a case in point, the agri gross domestic product...

-The Times of India GURUGRAM: The Sand storm conditions prevailing in the city for three days has raised fears of early desertification of the Delhi-NCR region among environmental experts. According to the experts, there has been an increase in frequency, longevity and density of Sand storms in this region this year. “The frequency of Sand storms has increased in the city in the past one decade. While earlier (in 2002), summer Sand...