-The Business Standard A quick recap of the intensely fractured debate on GM crops and what the pro & anti arguments are. After nearly a decade of opposition, Environment Minister Veerappa Moily is finally expected to rule in favour of the contentious GM or genetically modified food crops in India. The Economic Times reports that this will "pave the way for the government to submit an affidavit in the Supreme Court agreeing...

-The Hindu     To be able to deliver appropriate legal services to the rural and tribal communities, we need an alternative delivery system with a different model of legal service providers Delivery of legal services to the rich and the corporate class is organised not through individual lawyers but through a series of networked law firms. These firms employ hundreds of lawyers and domain experts all over the country to provide highly specialised...

-IPS   Food security activists who secured a moratorium on introducing genetically modified brinjal (aubergine) into India fear that their efforts are being undermined by the release of GM brinjal in neighbouring Bangladesh. "India and Bangladesh share a long and porous border and it is easy for GM brinjal varieties to be brought over," says Suman Sahai, director of Gene Campaign, a Delhi-based research and advocacy group devoted to the conservation of...

-The Business Standard Bt brinjal in Bangladesh calls for a policy review by India With Bangladesh approving commercial farming of Bt brinjal - a genetically modified (GM) crop developed using technology that evolved originally in India - the moratorium put on tests of a similar gene-altered version of this vegetable by New Delhi is likely to give rise to fresh complications. Given the highly porous border between the two countries, ingress of...

-IANS A small sugarcane farmer in western Maharashtra, Bhau Kadam (name changed) and his family, own about three hectares of land. He has two sons who are both graduates and work in Pune. When I asked him why he did not make his sons farmers, he says that farming is hard work, is non-remunerative and it is difficult to get labour. Besides he also thinks that farming is not glamorous, a farmer's...