Firm asks farmers to switch to its second-generation product to delay resistance further Pink bollworm resistant to pest-killing protein of Bt cotton in four districts Monsanto's advice ridiculous, say scientists For the first time anywhere in the world, biotech agriculture giant Monsanto has admitted that insects have developed resistance to its Bt cotton crop. Field monitoring in parts of Gujarat has discovered that the Bt crop is no longer effective against the...
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Farmer suicide rate: 5 a week by Sanjeev Kumar Patro
The bane of farmers’ suicides has taken Orissa in its vice-like grip with five ending their lives in every seven days. The trend has grown by over six per cent in 2008 as the State has climbed the ladder at a notoriously fast pace to rank 12th of the 28 states with most farmer deaths, the statistics released by the National Crime Records Bureau has revealed. The growth is over 40...
More »Living the report by Rati Jairath
In March 2004, a group of Dalit women from Uttar Pradesh’s Bundelkhand region stood on a stage in a plush Delhi auditorium. Th-ey were honoured with the Chameli Devi Award for outstanding media work. The same year, three of their colleagues received fellowships from the Dalit Foundation in Delhi for reporting on issues related to the rights of the Dalit community. The women in question run Khabar Lahariya: an eight...
More »Fast-track courts
The Supreme Court has ruled that fast-track courts, set up to ease the load of pending cases in subordinate courts, will continue to function in all states till further orders. Most of these courts were created under a centrally funded scheme on April 1, 2001, and were expected to lapse within five years. But they have since been given repeated extensions, the last one valid till March 31, 2010. “The scheme will...
More »State to get its own human rights panel
Nine years after the state’s creation, the cabinet today decided to set up a human rights commission in Jharkhand. The modalities to make the body functional is expected to be worked out soon. Principal secretary, cabinet co-ordination, Aditya Swaroop said according to the Human Rights Protection Act of 1993, all states ought to have a human rights commission. Such commissions are already in existence in Assam, Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala,...
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