-The Hindu Business Line   The uncertainty over adopting agricultural biotechnology is in no one's interest, given the high food inflation and dependence on imports. With food inflation climbing once again above 10 per cent, it has become even more urgent for the government to provide a a clear mandate in terms of policy support, the technology options and requisite investment for domestic agriculture. Output growth, especially of proteins, has been decisively TRAIling...

Public health experts blame it on government complacency THE World Health Organization has raised alarm over leprosy spreading across India. With the disease infecting about 120,000 people every year, the country is now the biggest contributor to the global leprosy burden, the UN body said in a press release. The Union health ministry had declared the disease, which causes lesions on the skin and attacks nerves in the hands and feet, often...

While Indian psychiatrists have rejected a World Health Organisation (WHO) study portraying India as the depression capital of the world, they say it has indirectly drawn attention to an acute shortage of TRAIned personnel and facilities to deal with mental illness. "Declaring India as having the highest rate of major depression in the world is an aberration in interpretation," Dr. Roy Abraham Kallivayalil, secretary-general of the World Association of Social Psychiatry,...

Monitoring of the continuous and comprehensive evaluation (CCE) scheme in schools for std I to VIII will begin from October 1, across the state. Surprise tests and visits have been planned in order to check if the scheme is being effectively implemented in school as per the Right to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009 by teachers. The Maharashtra State Council Education Research and TRAIning (MSCERT), the monitoring agency...

-PTI   Encouraged by support from Haryana labour authority and its parent Suzuki Motor Corp in the ongoing tussle with workers at the Manser plant, Maruti Suzuki India is understood to be planning to recruit new permanent employees to replace the existing ones. With no signs of an end to the standoff that started on August 29, the company has decided to give the current workers time till Monday to sign the "good...