Irom Chanu Sharmila, who continues her relentless fight against State led violence using Gandhian values of non-violence, is about to complete nine years of hunger strike on November 4. She continued with her ‘fast unto death’ campaign for nine years against the Armed Forces Special Power Act which has been in force in Manipur under the garb of fighting the separatists. In order to keep her alive, she has been...
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Hill tea patent in Europe cup
Darjeeling, Oct. 14: The European Union has asked for public opinions on Darjeeling Tea, a step towards granting patent to the brew growing in the Darjeeling hills after its producers requested GI protection of the commodity. Six months have been given to file objections before a decision can be taken to grant Geographical Indicator status to Darjeeling Tea. This is the first time a non-European has approached the EU for...
More »Grow more rice with fewer inputs and save the environment for free!
The procurement of rice for distribution under the proposed Right to Food scheme has renewed the fears of irreversible depletion of water table in India’s grain producing regions. It is feared that unless more scientific and progressive methods of rice cultivation are used, the otherwise welcome scheme would lead to more sowing of summer paddy leading to more injudicious water use and further soil degradation. Many rural NGOs and agricultural...
More »SRI method doubling rice output
JAMUGURIHAT, Sept 6 – At a time when the cultivators of Assam are spending their days in hopelessness and agony because of the long spell of drought, a new method of cultivation named SRI has brought a ray of hope to them as by this method Ahu rice production can be doubled. This new method of cultivation SRI (System of Rice Intensification) brought from Madagascar, has yielded desired results from...
More »A nutrition scheme held hostage by contractors by Biraj Patnaik
There has been an animated debate in the past three years over the supply of food in the ICDS (Integrated Child Development Services) programme. Supplementary nutrition has been provided to all children under the age of six since the inception of the programme more than three decades ago. This was done with the recognition that the nutrition gap (between what children should be consuming every day and what they actually...
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