-The Hindu New research at University of Cambridge focuses on rural knowledge systems and sustainable practices to safeguard the ecosystem An academic with research interests in food production, rural development and gender equality in development interventions, Shailaja Fennell has worked on several international projects to promote sustainability and build resilience. She supervises M.Phil students at the Centre of Development Studies – University of Cambridge, and Ph.D students at the Centre of Development...

-Newsclick.in Tech monopolies are increasingly being acknowledged as a danger to people, other companies and even to democracy. The regulatory worm seems to be turning in many countries, even in the US where it had gone into hibernation. The US Department of Justice has filed a lawsuit against Google-Alphabet (Alphabet is Google's parent company) for a range of anti-competitive practices using its monopoly power in the search market. This is the only...

-Society for Social and Economic Research The economic reforms which were started in 1991 shifted the focus of fertilizer policies away from playing a leading role in building the fertilizer industry and ensuring the availability of fertilizers at affordable prices to farmers. Under the neo-liberal policy framework, reducing the fiscal burden of fertilizer subsidies and the foreign exchange burden of fertilizer-related imports became the overriding concerns of the state.  Interestingly, the post-liberalisation...

-ThePrint.in UPSC uses a secret formula to ‘normalise’ scores in optional subjects, as there’s a gap between humanities marks and that in a technical subject like maths. New Delhi: Despite attempts by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) to increase the educational diversity of candidates selected through the civil service exam, the number of engineers becoming civil servants has remained disproportionately high — nearly 60 per cent in the last two years. Data...

-The Indian Express The ingenious plan, a brainchild of state Finance Minister TM Thomas Isaac, was formally rolled out earlier this week in Meenangadi, a panchayat of 33,000 people curled up in the Western Ghats hills in Wayanad district. Kochi: In a bid to encourage planting and preserving trees and thereby reduce carbon footprint, a village in Kerala has kickstarted a project that will allow farmers to mortgage the trees on their...