-The Hindu Business Line Apart from endemic policy concerns, the promotion of palm oil has downsides The edible oilseed production has occupied centre-stage in the discourse on Indian agriculture after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent announcement of the ₹11,040-crore National Mission on Edible Oil-Oil Palm (NMEO-OP), to have self-sufficiency in edible oils, particularly palm oil. There are two reasons for this announcement. First, the recent skyrocketing of edible oil prices has irked the...

-Scroll.in They wanted to work, even as the number of women in India’s workforce fell. But a national upheaval crushed Jharkhand women’s dreams of new lives in Tamil Nadu. Simran Oraon has no regrets about the day she ran away from her home in Jharkhand all the way to Tamil Nadu. It was mid-April 2019, a few days after she had finished a two-month tailoring course at a skills training institute in Gumla,...

-Down to Earth Groundwater contaminated with arsenic is extensively used for irrigation and finds its way into the food chain  Arsenic contamination in groundwater has been a growing concern in several parts of the country. Now, the chemical has found its way into the food chain — mainly rice, wheat and potato — a recent study has found. Ashok Kr Ghosh, one of the leading scientists of the team that led the research...

-TheWire.in Scientists described a 'culture of silence' at ICMR, with researchers worried that they would be passed over for opportunities if they questioned their superiors. New Delhi: The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR)’s top leadership “tailored” the agency’s findings on the spread of COVID-19 and its possible trajectory to suit Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s agenda and pressured scientists to downplay the threat posed by the pandemic, New York Times has reported. The...

-Down to Earth These traditional varieties of rice are on the verge of extinction from farm fields As many as 12 folk varieties of Indian rice examined by researchers can supplement the nutritional demand of important fatty acids in undernourished mothers, a recent study has claimed. These can further supplement the arachidonic acid (ARA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) in neonates through breast-feeding. DHA and ARA are fatty acids found in breast milk, as...