-The Guardian In a village in India's poorest state, Bihar, farmers are growing world record amounts of rice – with no GM, and no herbicide. Is this one solution to world food shortages? Sumant Kumar was overjoyed when he harvested his rice last year. There had been good rains in his village of Darveshpura in north-east India and he knew he could improve on the four or five tonnes per hectare that he usually...
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Mark Lynas, Visiting Research Associate, Oxford University interviewed by Sanjeeb Mukherjee
-The Business Standard In the 90s, Mark Lynas was a most vocal critic of genetically modified (GM) technology. An author of books such as High Tide, Six Degrees: Our Future on a Hotter Planet and The God Species, he shocked the world when he later said he was wrong in opposing GM technology. In a lecture at the Oxford Farming Conference earlier this month, he apologised for vandalising field trials of...
More »Govt moves to block 55 Facebook pages on Afzal Guru
-The Times of India The government has asked internet service providers to block 55 Facebook pages related to Afzal Guru. The notice by the Department of Telecom was issued a day before internet services were restored in Kashmir Valley after remaining suspended for a week following Afzal's hanging. It was on the same day, February 14, that the notice ordering ISPs to block 73 web pages with content relating to a...
More »CBI claims exemption from disclosing corruption info under RTI
-PTI CBI has approached the Delhi high court claiming protection from disclosure of information held by it on allegations of corruption under the Right to Information Act. The CBI's move to approach the Delhi high court came on a Central Information Commission decision allowing RTI plea of activist CJ Karira who had sought information related to status of sanction for prosecution against public servants facing allegations of corruption during 2007-11. Ironically, the information...
More »Abandoning the Right to Food-Ankita Aggarwal and Harsh Mander
-Economic and Political Weekly The proposed legislation on the National Food Security Act has been steadily watered down since it was fi rst mooted in 2009. The Parliamentary Standing Committee that examined the 2011 Bill has disappointingly continued with "targeting". If the government passes the bill incorporating the committee's suggestions, a historic opportunity to combat hunger and malnutrition would be lost. Ankita Aggarwal (aggarwal.ankita87@gmail.com) is a Research Scholar at the Centre for...
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