-The Hindu Malnutrition deaths were reported from Bandapani in July West Bengal: Intervening in sick tea gardens of the State for the first time, the Government of West Bengal has taken over the Bandapani Tea garden located in the Madarihaat block of Alipurduar district in West Bengal, and put up a notice on the gate that the land belongs to the State government. The tea garden has been closed since July 2013. When...

-The Times of India PRATAPPUR: Paddy grows in a dry patch on this farm. No fertilizers are used, the farm is not irrigated either. It is an experiment by seven farming enthusiasts who are trying to revive indigenous varieties and make them commercially viable in their villages. The dry paddy patch is small but the farm of about 4.8 ha grows more than 250 indigenous, organically grown varieties of paddy, pulses...

-The Hindustan Times The government plans to put up coal mines for bidding by private steel, power and cement companies and introduce changes in the law to enable commercial mining in the future, signalling its intent to fully open the sector to private players. The new auction-based system will replace the earlier controversial policy of allotting coal blocks based on recommendations of a panel of bureaucrats, which the Supreme Court had struck...

-The Hindu Gulbarga (Karnataka): Organic farming is catching up with farmers both in the irrigated and rain-fed areas in Gulbarga district. The improved agricultural practice of mixed crop cultivation, avoiding the use of the chemical fertilisers and pesticides, is a hit among the farmers in the district. Joint Director of the Agriculture Department Mohammad Jilani Mokashi told a group of presspersons visiting some of the agriculture plots, where individual farmers have adopted...

-eSocialSciences.org The report is an outcome of a coordinated civil society effort led by CommonHealth, a national level coalition working on maternal-neonatal health and safe abortion. India has been reporting a steady decline in the country's maternal mortality ratio (MMR) over the last few years. It is in this context that several civil society organizations in the country came together in 2012 under an initiative led by CommonHealth called Dead...