-The Indian Express Out of the 62 pesticide poisoning deaths reported in Maharashtra last year, 21 were in Yavatmal district alone, which also registered over 800 hospitalisation cases. Nagpur: Maharashtra has banned the sale of five moderately-to-extremely toxic insecticides and cancelled the licences of six companies for the current kharif season, as part of steps to prevent the recurrence of last year’s pesticide inhalation accidents that caused the deaths of 62 farmers...

-TheWire.in Former CEC S.Y. Quraishi, in whose term paper audits for EVM machines were tested and introduced, questions the failure of the system in the recent by-polls despite all-weather tests. New Delhi: The Election Commission on Friday declared that the reason behind the malfunctioning of a large number of voter verified paper audit trail (VVPAT) machines during the recently held by-elections to the Kairana and Bhandara-Gondiya parliamentary constituencies was due to the...

-Livemint.com For the first time during the tenure of the present government, overall inflation of food articles is negative, implying a decline in prices Last week the India Meteorological Department (IMD) presented its first forecast for the monsoon this year. The forecast at 97% of the long period average (LPA) suggested yet a third year of normal monsoon rains, following 2016 and 2017. This should have ideally brought cheer to farmers struggling...

-The New Indian Express Something remarkable happened when the farmers came marching to Mumbai recently. Instead of greeting them with hostility, Mumbaikars welcomed them with affection, food and water. This change in attitude was triggered by the farmers’ extraordinary discipline and their efforts to ensure minimal disruption to the Mumbaikars’ routines. Even hard-boiled journalists acknowledged, for a brief moment, urbanites had realised  our farmers and adivasis were indeed facing difficult times. The...

-The Pioneer Is Odisha in the grip of climate change adversity? This looks apparent when for last three consecutive years, i.e., 2015 to 2017, the State keeps recording a condition of excessive to mildly dry even during the monsoon period of June to September. Moreover, the State has recorded wet conditions only during the cyclone or heavy flood years during the period 2009-2017. Sample this: According to the available data with Met...