-Down to Earth It provides farmers with services to improve productivity and find better prices A non-profit based in Telangana, working on agricultural research and development, has launched a low-cost phone cum tablet computer-phablet-to benefit small holder farmers. "GreenPHABLET will allow information to be precisely targeted to individual smallholder farmers, helping them to purchase inputs at a lower price and get a better price for their produce. It will also link them to...

-The Hindu PM Modi to head panel that will give strategic advice On the first day of the New Year, the Modi Government set up NITI Aayog (National Institution for Transforming India) in place of the Planning Commission. The Prime Minister will head the new institution tasked with the role of formulating policies and direction for the Government. Its Governing Council will comprise State Chief Ministers and Lt. Governors of Union Territories. The...

-Vikalp Once again, India is under pressure from the US to revise its patent law. Anyone familiar with the activities of the United States Trade Representatives (USTR) would know that this is nothing new. It has been among the USTR's primary mandates to use trade restrictions in order to persuade (to put it mildly) countries to strengthen their IPR laws. There is, however, a qualitative difference between the actions it has...

-The Indian Express With the positive intent and progressive action from the new government, the country is excited about entering a new era of growth & revolutionary transformation. This can happen faster and more effectively if the whole Ecosystem is geared for it. And most important component of the Ecosystem are the people, who are the primary beneficiaries as well as the key catalysts to stimulate this growth and transformation. Hence,...

-The Financial Express   Rice cultivation through flooded cultivation method, often seen as a source of methane emissions, which contribute to global warming, does not release carbon into the atmosphere, a study by the Central Rice Research Institute (CRRI), a premier body under the ministry of agriculture, has stated. Instead, the study has said the tropical low land submerged Ecosystem in mainly eastern India is a ‘net carbon sink not a carbon...