Following allegations of plagiarism, top Indian science academies have come out with a new report on Bt brinjal, reiterating their earlier claim that the genetically modified (GM) crop is safe and fit for commercial release. A coalition of environmental groups had alleged that key parts of an earlier report prepared by the science academies were plagiarized from a pro-GM newsletter of the department of biotechnology, Mint reported on 27 September. Last week,...

Dalit entrepreneurs will make a historic journey to Delhi next week for a pre-budget meeting with Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia. This is the first time that business leaders from the country's most marginalized communities will be included in the government's budget consultation process. The meeting is scheduled for Monday afternoon with 40 entrepreneurs from different parts of the country expected to attend. It marks the emergence of a...

Prof Shenggen Fan, Director General, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), Washington DC, said that hunger and malnutrition continued to be challenging problems among 29 countries of the world, and India was one of them. As such, food and nutrition availability should be the major development goals in the national policy of these developing nations. Delivering a special lecture on the second day of the 93rd annual conference of the Indian...

Rural Development Minister CP Joshi has refused to move on a proposal by the Planning Commission to link wages under the national job guarantee scheme to the consumer price index. In fact, the Plan panel’s proposal was echoed by the National Advisory Council chaired by UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi.In a presentation to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh recently, the Planning Commission made a strong case for aligning the wage levels to...

Indian civil society was dismayed and horror-struck when human rights activist Dr Binayak Sen, who has spent over three decades caring for the poor in tribal areas of central India, was sentenced to life imprisonment for ‘sedition’ along with two others, Piyush Guha and Narayan Sanyal by a Raipur Sessions Court judge.  Protests are taking place everywhere in the country and the members of India’s vibrant civil society, peoples’ movements,...