-Economic and Political Weekly There has been a major change in the composition and mix of the cattle population in India. The proportion of male cattle has declined sharply as farmers do not fi nd it worthwhile to maintain bullocks to plough holdings that are becoming smaller and smaller. The composition of the milch cattle population too is changing. The proportion of the indigenous breed is falling and that of the...

-The Hindu Chennai: Scientists at the Chennai-based Central Institute of Brackishwater Aquaculture have achieved success in breeding milkfish in captivity after 10 long years of research. For the first time in the country, efforts to breed in captivity milkfish (Chanos Chanos), known as Pal Kendai in Tamil, met with success by the Chennai-based Central Institute of Brackishwater Aquaculture (CIBA) at its Experimental Research Station in Muttakadu. “It is a major breakthrough in the...

-The Hindu Coffee, rubber farmers MIGrate to dairy sector ALAPPUZHA: Milk production in the State has been registering a notable increase in recent months. The rise is partly due to the adoption of dairying by a considerable number of coffee and rubber farmers disgusted with the fall in prices of the produce. The price fall in coffee has had a telling effect on the lives of coffee farmers in Wayanad who have turned...

-Business Standard Successors to Millennium Development Goals should be achievable - and clearly written "By 2030 reduce the global maternal mortality ratio to less than 70 per 100,000 live births." Everyone understands what this statement means. It is simple, comprehensible, concise, specific and quantifiable. In September 2015, the Milennium Development Goals, or MDGs, will be replaced by sustainable development goals, or SDGs. There are several parallel channels flowing into SDG formulation. One...

-The Hindu Urban planning that involves the people and alternative service providers gives far better results than top-down efforts from the government, finds an IIT-M study In Tiruchirappalli, Tamil Nadu, the responsibility of managing and maintaining a set of more than 160 community toilets was handed over by the Tiruchirapalli City Corporation to a federation of women self-help groups. A post-programme field survey of 803 households revealed that the community participation had...