-Outlook Vigorous action can nullify the reasons that conspire to keep Dalits out of newsrooms In the ’50s, a foreign correspondent wrote to a renowned south Indian English daily, seeking comments on alleged discrimination against non-Brahmin journalists on its staff. Discrimination was out of the question, the paper clarified, as it never hired a non-Brahmin!  Over  60 years later, the media landscape has altered but the Indian newsroom is still the sanctuary...

-Economic and Political Weekly A number of state agencies and non-governmental organisations have come forward to facilitate farmers/breeders to register their crop varieties and obtain plant variety certifi cates. But can these agencies bring forth a change in the mindset of the small farmers and seed savers' groups who view the current intellectual property regime with scepticism and continue to keep away from it? Shalini Bhutani (shalinibhutani@hotmail.com) is a legal researcher and...

-PTI Patna: Bihar is the country's most flood-prone state with 73 per cent of its 94,163-sq.km area getting flooded annually, the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) said in Patna today. 76 per cent people of North Bihar are at risk of getting caught in floods, said Giriraj Amarnath, senior researcher and project lead of IWMI, who added that Index-based Flood Insurance (IBFI) could prove to be a boon for the situation. Speaking at...

-PTI Indore: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will officially kick off Digital India Week at 4 PM on Wednesday over video conferencing in two village panchayats in Indore. Industry leaders like Cyrus Mistry, Mukesh Ambani, Azim Premji, Pawan Munjal, Sunil Mittal, Kumar Manglam Birla and Anil Ambani are expected to be present at the launch. The Digital India Project aims to connect all gram panchayats in India through broadband, promote e-governance and transform...

-PTI NEW DELHI: In another round of action against erring NGOs, the government has cancelled the licence of 4,470 such entities that surprisingly included a number of top universities, Supreme Court Bar Association and Escorts Heart Institute, which bars them from receiving foreign funds. The decision to cancel the registration of these entities under the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act has been taken by the Union home ministry after examination of their activities...