Can we agree in this country on a floor of human dignity below which we will not allow any human being to fall? No child, woman or man in this land will sleep hungry. No person shall be forced to sleep under the open sky. No parent shall send their child out to work instead of to school. And no one shall die because they cannot afford the cost of...

-The United Nations   Fast and relatively short-term action to curb soot and smog could improve human health, generate higher crop yields, reduce climate change and slow the melting of the Arctic, according to a United Nations-backed study released today. The study, compiled by an international team of more than 50 researchers and coordinated by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), “complements urgent action needed to cut...

-Reuters   Sitting at the edge of fields in the heart of India's grain bowl, Gurdayal Singh Malik shakes his head in resignation about the lack of workers needed for his 60-acre farm, blaming the government's flagship welfare program, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MNREGS), for the shortage. Ever since the start of the program, which guarantees 100 days of work a year for rural households, the flow of...

-Express News Service   A team of 13 research scholars from the Centre for Sustainable Technologies, IISc, will now conduct environmental service enhancement assessments at the national level starting from June. These scholars have conducted a study on environmental service enhancement and conservation and vulnerability reduction at Chitradurga district. "Talks are on to start the assessment by the last week of June at Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Meghalaya. Discussions are...

An insightful article on “The wheat mountains of the Punjab” by Professor M.S. Swaminathan – one of the world's leading agricultural scientists and food policy experts – and a couple of reports on the Supreme Court of India's observations and directions on the same subject, published in this newspaper have drawn the attention of readers in substantial numbers. The article, published on May 11, 2011, throws new light on the present...