-Down to Earth For farmers, trust sells more than organic licence A FOOD SAFETY and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) official walked into Restore, an organic food store at Kottivakkam in Chennai. He picked up a packet of rice off the shelf and noticed some bugs in it. "How can you sell groceries with bugs?" he asked. The staff told him their customers buy their goods precisely because of the bugs in...

-TheHansIndia.com Mulai Payeng, a 57 year old tribal farmer from the Kathino bari village in the Jorhat district in upper Assam expresses surprise when asked if the lack of irrigation facilities or the changes in the rainfall pattern is affecting his cultivation. Payeng belongs to the Mishing community. According to state government data, presently over fifty percent of the irrigation projects are non functional in the state, and besides this environmentalists have pointed...

-The Indian Express The NDA government took over from the UPA more than eight months ago but it appears to be deja vu for activists fighting against the constitutionality of Section 66A of the Information Technology Act, which empowers police to arrest people for social media posts. Following the previous government's line, the NDA regime has lent its support to the validity of Section 66A, saying the "danger was present and clear"...

-The Hindu The acceptance of inclusion as a concept amongst teachers is weakened by the complexity they encounter in the classrooms when dealing with children from disadvantaged families Let's consider an issue that teachers in our government schools grapple with every day. Every class across the country has a significant proportion of children who are first generation school-goers. They come from severely disadvantaged families. The support at home for such children for...

-The Hindu Business Line   Commerce Ministry asks poultry breeders to assess risk on fresh health concerns New Delhi: India is preparing a second line of defence to protect its domestic poultry industry against competition from cheap chicken leg imports from the US. With the World Trade Organisation recently ruling against India's ban on chicken import from the US on the grounds that it would lead to spread of bird flu, the Commerce Ministry...