-The Hindu Business Line Registration committee favours review of each pesticide in 10-year intervals New Delhi: The Anupam Verma Committee, set up to review the continued use of 66 pesticides that have been barred/restricted for use in farming in other countries, has recommended a ban on 13 ‘extremely hazardous’ pesticides, phasing out of six ‘moderately hazardous’ ones by 2020, and review of 27 pesticides in 2018. The six pesticides suggested for phasing out...

Seldom rural citizens get the chance to meet high-level officials who are responsible for delivery of public services and implement pro-poor schemes. But this was made possible thanks to the Accountability Yatra, which is taking place in Rajasthan since December 2015.   It is indeed a rare opportunity to find a District Education Officer (DEO) being asked directly by a simple villager in a public meeting that in how many school...

-The Times of India DEHRADUN: Historian Ramachandra Guha, the author of The Unquiet Woods, a chronicle of the Chipko movement and its continuing relevance, threw his weight behind protesters seeking that the state government desist from taking over tea gardens in Dehradun for the Smart City project. He tweeted: "A looming land scam in the name of a 'Smart City' in my home town, Dehradun". He told TOI that the proposal...

-PTI TRAI had earlier invited public comments to firm up its views over services that lead to differential pricing of data. January 14 was the last day for countercomments. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) only received 21 comments from individuals and organisations countering 24 lakh submissions over its paper on differential pricing of data, a key aspect of net neutrality. Telecom operators, including Airtel, Vodafone, Idea Cellular and Reliance Communications, through...

-Hindustan Times Washington: Mark Zuckerberg’s Free Basics, the free but restrictive internet service that has run into trouble with Indian authorities, has picked up yet another opponent, the World Bank. Its World Development Report released Wednesday called Free Basics, which is a part of Facebook’s internet.org initiative, the “antithesis of net neutrality and a distortion of markets”. The bank is not opposing Free Basics specifically, or its Indian rollout. It believes any attempt...