-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Union minister Maneka Gandhi on Thursday pitched for providing packaged food under the government's supplementary nutrition scheme ICDS. The ICDS scheme is one of the largest schemes of its kind with an estimated 10.2 crore beneficiaries including children under six years, pregnant women and lactating mothers. However, despite decades of implementation malnutrition levels continue to be very high in India. The World Bank estimates that India...

-The Times of India PATNA: In an apparent move to politically besiege PM Narendra Modi on his announcements during the recently concluded assembly elections, CM Nitish Kumar on Tuesday urged the assembly speaker to form a joint committee of state legislature to monitor execution of works under all the schemes listed in the much-publicised Rs 1.65 lakh crore special package for Bihar. The CM proposed that the joint committee should be headed...

-The Indian Express The time has come for the NHRC and State Human Rights Commissions to proactively recognise, promote and protect HRDs and create an enabling environment for defending human rights. On 28 May 2011, in Raigarh district of Chhattisgarh, two activists, Ramesh Agrawal and Harihar Patel, were arrested by the state police. Another activist, Rajesh Tripathi, went underground fearing imminent arrest. The trio, along with others, through their organisations—Jan Chetna...

-PTI NEW DELHI: The pre-monsoon groundwater level has declined in 46 per cent of wells assessed by the government across the country, as compared to the five-year average, Rajya Sabha was informed today. Union Minister of State for Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation Sanwar Lal Jat said this in Rajya Sabha while responding to questions on ground water levels in plains and drying waterfalls in hilly regions. "Assessment of groundwater-level monitoring...

-The Times of India Kozhikode: Despite a looming agrarian crisis, farmers in Wayanad have become the guardians of critical agro-biodiversity by nurturing traditional rice varieties which are fast becoming extinct. They have won exclusive farmers' rights for 10 more traditional rice varieties under the Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers' Rights Act (PPV&FR), 2001. With this, the number of rice varieties registered as 'Farmers' varieties of Wayanad' has become 16. Seedcare, an association...