-The Times of India New Delhi: In a sign of the strength of India's public Research institutions, Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI) released seven new varieties of field crops including wheat, rice, chickpea, pigeon pea and mustard and identified 11 varieties of high-yielding agricultural and horticultural produce during 2015. All these varieties are not just resilient to several biotic (living organism like pests and insects) and abiotic (nonliving factors like light, temperature...

-The Times of India It's 8:00 am on a Sunday and outside Denzong Cinema in Gangtok's Lal Bazar, the otherwise languid atmosphere is punctured by grocers of two kinds. On one side of the cinema are those who sell vegetables, fruits and spices sourced from outside Sikkim, mostly from Siliguri, 115 km south in West Bengal. On the other side of the cinema, almost completing a triangle, are farmers from the...

-The Hindu The Health Ministry’s plan for a malaria-free India by 2030 is laudable, but grand pronouncements are meaningless as long as manipulated data distort our knowledge and bad governance impedes genuine attempts to fight the disease This month, the Health Ministry will unveil an ambitious new plan to eliminate malaria from the country by 2030. A malaria-free India certainly sounds like a dream, or maybe an early campaign promise: the disease...

-Livemint.com Academic assessment of the scheme appears far more favourable than evident from the public discourse Ten years after it was launched, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), which promises 100 days of employment to every rural household, is back in the news. More people in rural India are seeking employment through the programme across the country, with job numbers scaling a five-year peak. Although the MGNREGS seems to be...

-The Indian Express Will not halt Research but not rushing through decision, says Javadekar. HELPING THE government buy peace with activists protesting against granting clearance to the first transgenic food crop in the country, the biotechnology regulator on Friday deferred a decision on allowing the cultivation of a genetically-modified (GM) hybrid mustard. The Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee (GEAC), a body under the Environment Ministry that regulates the use of genetically modified organisms (GMOs),...