-Kafila.org Dear Prime Minister Modi ji, We, the undersigned, wish to share with you some of our concerns on India's position on intellectual property (IP), particularly in the context of bilateral relations between the United States of America and India. We gather from the US-India Joint Statement dated 30 September 2014 that the Indian Government (a)greeing on the need to foster innovation in a manner that promotes economic growth...

-The Hindu Tirupati (Andhra Pradesh): Given that about 30 per cent of the national energy goes to conventional cooking, bringing down LPG consumption holds the key. As the likely targets are social welfare hostels and schools, where mass cooking of meals is an integral part of the daily chore, New and Renewable Energy Development Corporation of Andhra Pradesh (NREDCAP) gave a demo at Social Welfare Boys' Hostel here recently on the use...

-Deccan Herald In accordance with a new agroecology initiative within the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation, by using the agroecological methods, small farmers are key to feeding the world, Nafeez Ahmed notes. Modern industrial agricultural methods can no longer feed the world, due to the impacts of overlapping environmental and ecological crises linked to land, water and resource availability. The stark warning comes from the new United Nations Special Rapporteur on the...

-The Hindu With public schools not performing and private schools teaching students to compete rather than learn, India's primary sites of education are at risk The Rajasthan government recently decided to close down more than 17,000 schools, the Maharashtra government decided to close down about 14,000 schools and the Odisha government is closing down 195 schools because of low attendance by students. These are not stray incidents, but indicate the decline of...

-BBC It's a riot of colours - yellow marigolds and bright pink roses spread out in the sun. But the people spreading the joy this festive season cannot see it themselves - they are all visually challenged. They take in tonnes of flower waste produced by temples and hotels in Delhi and turn it into organic skin-friendly colours for Hindu festivals. The Society for Child Development, which runs this programme, says the process does...