-The Hindu While hypertension and cardiovascular disease are significantly associated with increased risk of renal failure deaths, diabetes is the leading factor Deaths from renal failure among Indian adults now outstrip deaths from HIV/AIDS, signalling a major shift in causes of mortality in the country over the past decade — away from infectious disease causes to non-communicable disease causes. These are the results of a study published recently in The Lancet. As per...

-Down to Earth Collective rights to undo historic injustice meted out to indigenous people remain completely ignored by the states, says Citizens’ report Ten years after the historic Forest Rights Act (FRA) was passed by the Indian lawmakers, only three per cent of villages or communities could secure their rights over forest resources which include land and the produce from the forests and water, states the Citizens’ Report prepared by Community...

-The Hindu IR8, the high-yielding rice variety helped India fight famine, turns 50 this month In 1967, when a 29-year-old N. Subba Rao sowed a semidwarf variety of rice in over 2,000 hectares in Atchanta, West Godavari district in Andhra Pradesh, he wouldn't have thought he would be part of a revolution in rice cultivation. What Dr. Rao sowed in his farm was IR-8, a rice variety developed by the International Rice Research...

-The Hindu Business Line Bengaluru/ Ahmedabad: Though acreage under the main rabi (winter) crops, such as wheat, gram and mustard continued to rise, overall sowing for the season across the country has turned sluggish as cash-strapped farmers have slowed down planting. According to preliminary data released by the Agriculture Ministry, acreage under rabi crops till November 18 stood lower, at 241.73 lakh hectares, compared to 243.38 lakh ha in the corresponding period...

-The Hindu Business Line Thiruvananthapuram: All available indications now point to the washout of the North-East monsoon in the Peninsula, after the drubbing it received during the preceding South-West monsoon. With half of November gone and no prospects of any major pick-up in rain during the rest of the month, there is little that the last month of December can possibly bring in. What looked a like a brief revival in activity early...