-PTI Chennai: Madras High Court has temporarily restrained a school in Kancheepuram district from making it mandatory for students to have the lunch and snacks provided by the institution for a fee. It issued notices to the Union HRD ministry, CBSE and Hiranandani Upscale School and posted the case for further hearing to September 29. The order was issued by Justice M. Sathyanarayan recently on a petition by Bharathi Rajendran. "Going through the materials...

-The New Indian Express HYDERABAD: A few select government school students in the city will now be served breakfast thanks to Akshya Patra’s efforts. The NGO  will provide breakfast at 20 government schools in Hyderabad from September. “We will give idly-sambar, upma-chutney and pongal-chutney for breakfast,” said Kaunteya Dasa of Akshaya Patra. The breakfast initiative is funded by Aurobindo Pharma, a pharmaceutical company as a part of their Corporate Social Responsibility...

-The Hindu This is hardly a rice ready for cultivation by farmers — it has not even entered the stage of biosafety evaluation by government regulatory institutions. Recently 110 Nobel Laureates issued a strongly worded plea to Greenpeace to “abandon their campaign against [genetically modified organisms] in general and Golden Rice in particular.” This is not the first time notable scientists have waded into the controversy surrounding genetically modified (GM) crops. What...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: A month has gone by since the Supreme Court issued directions to tackle drought but it is "business as usual" for the Centre and the affected states, civil society organisations have said. Worse, government intervention is even less than what it used to be in colonial times, they said. A quarter of the country is drought-hit at present. On May 11, the apex court had pronounced the Centre guilty...

-The Times of India Raipur: To make sure that no kid sleeps without food in drought-hit areas even when their schools take a summer break, Chhattisgarh government has decided to continue the supply of midday meals during summer vacation as well. Around 26 lakh children in 117 tehsil of 25 districts will benefit with the move. An official circular issued by education secretary Subrat Sahu stated that all students of government schools...