-The Hindu   With the world's most toxic air, Delhi struggles to breathe. Although its challenges are many, going forward, the city must learn a few basic lessons from the past The summer of 1857 is well-etched in the Indian psyche as the summer of revolt, of a mutiny against the British. Earlier that year, however, there was a smaller initiative that bears recollection - for it speaks of an unfinished agenda of...

-PTI New Delhi: The risk of hunger and malnutrition could increase by 20 per cent due to climate change by 2050, endangering the lives of millions of people, a UN agency has warned. The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) says climate change is making disasters, such as floods and droughts, more frequent and intense, land and water more scarce and difficult to access, and increases in agricultural productivity even harder to...

-Scidev.net   * Black carbon and ozone in the atmosphere may cause India's wheat and rice crops to decline * Black carbon interferes with radiation reaching the earth while ozone is toxic to plants * Crop yield decline from pollutants may not be as large as projected by model THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Atmospheric pollutants may impact India's major crops like wheat and rice more than temperature rise, says a new study based on a ‘regression model'...

-The Hindu India's small farmers have been struggling for centuries now and they need social and governmental action to change their future Of India's 121 million agricultural holdings, 99 million are with small and marginal farmers, with a land share of just 44 per cent and a farmer population share of 87 per cent. With multiple cropping prevalent, such farmers account for 70 per cent of all vegetables and 52 per cent...

-The Asian Age The sharp and sudden collapse of international prices of crude oil brings significant short-term gains for the Indian economy. However, in the medium and long run, the fall in oil prices has ramifications that are far from positive for this country. The windfall gains that have accrued will provide temporary relief for finance minister Arun Jaitley and will enable him to meet the fiscal deficit target in the...