-The Indian Express Government must ensure the disabilities law reaches out to the most needy The Persons with Disabilities (Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights and Full Participation) Act, 1995, (PWDA) completed two decades of existence this month. However, the majority of disabled people is yet to avail the entitlements envisaged under the law. Inaccessible public places, non-accommodative educational institutions and the lack of employment opportunities for the disabled are widespread. Under Section...

-DNA The failure of Bt Cotton to ward off pests has pushed farmers to penury The whitefly attack that has devastated the cotton crop in parts of Punjab and Haryana and caused heavy losses to farmers was a disaster that was waiting to happen. Estimates say that some 8 lakh hectare of standing cotton has been destroyed causing damage worth crores of rupees, which has hit farmers hard. This disaster was waiting...

-The Hindu Beef production uses more water and land and emits more greenhouse gases than other livestock A recent recommendation of the World Health Organization (WHO) has declared red meat a carcinogen. Processed meats are the major culprit, and are a Class-1 carcinogen, which means that the evidence linking consumption to cancer is strong. Red meats are in a lower category, 2A, which means consumption is probably linked to cancer, specifically colorectal cancer....

-Hindustan Times Bhopal: The Madhya Pradesh government will prepare a legal framework for leasing land for agriculture that would not put the land owner at a disadvantage but will provide rights to the lease holder, chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said on Tuesday. Chouhan was addressing the media at the conclusion of an exercise launched by the state government to assess the ground situation against the backdrop of the farming crisis. He said that...

-Hindustan Times In the 1970s Deng Xiaoping explained that China’s one-child policy was being introduced to ensure “the Fruits of economic growth are not devoured by population growth”. Last week, Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s rationale for officially abandoning the policy was the reverse: To ensure economic growth is not wrecked by population decrease. But it is probably too late to change China’s demographic future. China’s population has begun to age — and age...