-Livemint.com Thanks to the debt relief commission, 11,354 Kerala farmers have benefited from a disbursement of over ?11 crore, and there are no farmer suicides in the state Ernakulam/ Bengaluru: Back in 2006, Kerala came face to face with an explosive situation. Ironically in a state dominated by Communist politicians, farming was dominated by export-oriented cash crops such as rubber and pepper, prices of which had plunged in the global market. It...

-The Telegraph Call to govt to act against covert promotion A paediatricians’ network has asked the government to act against violations of a law on baby food substitutes, claiming companies are organising “scientific sessions” to influence doctors into recommending their products. The Breastfeeding Promotion Network of India has asked the Union health ministry to authorise health officers or paediatricians in the district hospitals to look out for and file complaints against violations of...

-The Indian Express In the recent exercise, state governments, tasked with verifying 54,929 manual scavengers identified across 170 select districts in stage one of the counting process, have confirmed involvement of only 25,015 people in the job in the final verification stage. New Delhi: State governments have denied the existence of more than half the number of people identified as being involved in manual scavenging in the course of a Central...

-The Times of India NEW Delhi: What is driving the fellowship hike protests across centrally-funded institutions such as the IITs, IISc,NITs or the IISERs? The last hike for the 1.25 lakh research scholar community was in 2014, that too after a gap of four years. With no hike since then and no communication from the government, scholars across institutions have joined hands to launch a nationwide movement demanding a better stipend. Apart...

-The Economic Times NEW Delhi: India is ready to allow dairy imports from the US, if Washington can guarantee that those don’t violate religious sentiments here, said an official aware of the discussions. India, where dairy products are an integral part of the Hindu methods of worship, requires these be derived from animals which have never consumed any feeds containing internal organs, blood meal, or tissues of ruminant origin. New Delhi has told...