-The Guardian Rice conservationist Debal Deb grapples with 'mindless Indian elite' to reintroduce genetically diverse, drought-tolerant varieties   Fifty years ago, every Indian village would probably have grown a dozen or more rice varieties that grew nowhere else. Passed down from generation to generation and family to family, there would have been a local variety for every soil and taste - rice that would grow well in droughts or deep floods, which had...

-The Hindu The entire spectrum of political leadership should take a pledge to transform the healthcare system of India in a decade As the countdown to the next general election begins, political parties are making multiple promises to pull in votes. All the party leaders are committing to transforming the lives of people. But health, ironically, does not feature high on their priority list, even though it is the central pillar of...

-The Indian Express The average days of employment per household under the MNREGS have been less than 50 a year. Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi again touted the MNREGS scheme as one of the UPA government's leading achievements, in his interview to PTI on Sunday. However, Ministry of Rural Development data shows that households have not got work for even half of the mandated 100 days annually since the flagship rural job guarantee...

-The Hindustan Times As parties gear up for polls, India's two most talked about non-Congress ruled states - Gujarat and Bihar - have been rated as having lesser spending inequality as compared to most other states of the country. A new government study ranks Gujarat as the state having least inequality in urban areas except four north-eastern states of Manipur, Meghalaya, Nagaland and Mizoram. For rural areas, Bihar earns the top slot...

-DNA The food is not up to the mark either, the study conducted by Support for Advocacy and Training to Health Initiatives has found. Mumbai: Nearly 45,000 children in the 0-6 age group die of malnutrition every year in Maharashtra. As a preventive measure, the government spends Rs300 crore yearly to provide kids with "micronutrient-fortified, energy-dense" food under the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS). But the project is a waste of money...