-The Times of India THRISSUR: The state government has raised objection to the move of a man in Palakkad to get intellectual property (IP) rights over the Navara variety of rice. Agriculture minister V S Sunilkumar said as per the information received by the government, this person had applied for IP rights under the Farmers’ right clause of the Protection of Plant Variety and Farmers Right Act, 2001 (PPV&FR Act). “He is known...

-The Hindu Trust in official statistics is vital for democracy — the new policy must avoid centralisation David Spiegelhalter, president of Royal Statistical Society in the U.K., gave a most unusual presidential address in 2017. Instead of talking about esoteric statistical techniques, he talked about declining trust in numbers in a post-truth society bombarded by fake news and alternative facts. He recommended to the statistical community that the best way of inspiring...

-The Hindu Centre for Politics and Public Policy As Prime Minister Narendra Modi completes four years in office this month, it is becoming increasingly clear that his government has fallen short on the promises made during the 2014 election campaign. The economy has performed below expectations, and some of the economic metrics today are weaker than what the country witnessed in the last years – labelled the ‘policy paralysis’ phase –...

-The Tribune Will open sale counters in villages, near highways Kurukshetra: Farmer unions across the country have decided to suspend supply of vegetables and milk to wholesale markets from June 1 to 10. Growers from Haryana will join the ‘Kisan Avkash’ as well. Famers are demanding price fixation policies for agricultural and horticultural produce, loan waiver and implementation of Swaminathan Commission recommendations. Gurnam Singh Charuni, state president of the Bhartiya Kisan Union, said Farmers...

-The Hindu Anand Joshi, a rural development fellow under CM’s programme, helped bring State Transport buses, and electricity after 70 years to a remote village in Amravati Mumbai: Anand Joshi (26), an MBA from MIT, Pune open university is reverently referred to as khambewala saab in Bulumgavan village in Amravati district. He finds the tag both daunting and amusing: “They call me that because of the electric poles that stand in their...