-First Post Predictably, the recommendation by an experts’ panel appointed by the Supreme Court  - that trials of genetically modified (GM) crops should be halted for 10 years – has stirred a hornet’s nest. Such a moratorium would include ongoing trials and the court rejected it. This follows on the heels of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Agriculture’s 492-page report published in August which asked for the banning of GM food crops...

-CNN-IBN Inside the crumbling housing estates of Shivaji Enclave, amid the boys playing cricket and housewives chatting from their balconies, winding staircases lead to places where lies a darker side to India's economic boom. Three months ago, police rescued Theresa Kerketa from one of these tiny two-roomed flats. For four years, she was kept here by a placement agency for domestic maids, in between stints as a virtual slave to Delhi's...

-The Hindu The Leveson report on the British press should jolt the Indian media into acting against ills such as paid news, and focus on being an agent of progressive social change After an inquiry lasting a year, Lord Justice Leveson has delivered a damning verdict on the decades of “outrageous” behaviour by the media. If anything, this verdict would apply in even greater force to a large section (not all) of...

-The Economic Times What are the chances that a chicken infected with bird flu will land on your plate? Zero. What are the chances that a bird flu infection will increase the price you pay for chicken and eggs? 100%. A virulent and deadly infection called avian influenza or bird flu is present in our country. The virus usually affects wild fowl which then infect chickens. The virus can survive for...

-Outlook The much awaited Land Acquisition Bill has been finalised and sent to the Union Cabinet which is likely take up the matter for consideration at its next meeting, a senior official said today. Sources said the bill was finalised by the Rural Development Ministry incorporating the suggestion of UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi who had asked the government to take consent from 80 per cent land owners for purchase of land for...