-Frontline Is there a shift in the attitude of Kerala society towards the value of daughters? Is son preference spreading in a State once known to be above extreme gender bias? A recent study on child sex ratio generates more questions than it answers. By R. KRISHNAKUMAR in Thiruvananthapuram ABORTION of female foetuses after parents learn of their gender using medical diagnostic techniques is believed to be one of the central reasons...

-The Hindu The rape of a five-year-old in Delhi highlights the need for urgent and concerted action to ensure safety of girls and women in India, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) has said. More should be done to urgently change the mindset towards women and check such brutal crimes, it said. In a statement issued here, UNICEF said recently published data shows that more than 30,000 crimes were committed against children...

-The Economic Times WASHINGTON: As India gears up to provide food security cover to 67% of its population, a report compiled by Global Development Network says that the challenges to food security and rural livelihood is fast growing not only in India but in entire South Asia. The report says that the problem can be addressed by investment in agriculture and rural livelihoods on a priority basis. "Financial investment in agriculture research...

-The Economic Times The BT cotton revolution, which swept India's countryside, is now doubling up as the source of the country's cheapest cooking oil. And in Narendra Modi's motherland, the Jasubens are loving it. Cottonseed or 'kapasiya' oil is ruling in the kitchens of Gujarat, the largest cotton-growing state. One out of every two bottles of oil consumed in Gujarat contains cottonseed oil. "Earlier, we used around three litres of cottonseed oil...

-The Hindu The Supreme Court judgment on Glivec is a blow for a patent regime with a higher threshold of inventiveness On April 1, 2013, the Supreme Court upheld the Intellectual Property Appellate Board's decision to deny patent protection to Novartis's application covering a beta crystalline form of imatinib -the medicine Novartis brands as Glivec, and which is very effective against the form of cancer known as chronic myeloid leukaemia (CML). The...