-The Hindu District Mineral Foundations were set up to protect the Interests of Adivasi communities who have borne the costs of mining. But they are flawed in their current form Through 2011-13, dogged investigators from the Justice M. B. Shah Commission on illegal mining toured the rust-red villages, forests and rivers of northern Odisha, and trawled through reams of official records including from the environment, minerals, railways, and revenue departments. They met...

-The Times of India TRICHY: An invention to convert human urine into fertilizer for banana cultivation in 2012 by a principal scientist of the National Research Centre for Banana (NRCB) here has not gained traction among farmers. Moreover, the central and state governments have not evinced any Interest on the invention for the reasons best known to them. Farmers too are unwilling to adopt the invention which could reduce the cost...

-DNA Talking about her late son Sampatrao, Gayabai's voice breaks. "He was cleaning a well to increase its depth and width. Suddenly, the manual lift that was carrying the boulders and mud from the well fell on his head. He succumbed to his injury even before reaching the hospital," she says. Gayabai Murkute (75) lost her son Sampatrao (45) in an accident three years ago. Same year the rain stopped falling. Her...

-The Hindu Has the social media converted people into a lynch mob that seeks out justice and passes judgement instantly, without bothering to hear both sides of the story? The Internet has changed the way we communicate in more ways than we can imagine. Apart from being a medium to share pictures and updates with family and friends, social media has also become an arena where political debates are a commonplace and...

-The Hindu Business Line A valuable account of how holistic, small-farmer based agriculture can show the way MS Swaminathan is well known as the key architect of India’s Green Revolution in the mid-1960s and an all-time crusader against hunger and food insecurity. His latest book, entitled Combating Hunger and Achieving Food Security, broadly shows the road map for a hunger-free and food-secure India. The book has 30 chapters, each suggesting some sweet...