-The Times of India NEW DELHI: The government on Wednesday recast the almost defunct Prime Minister's council on climate change, a move seen as an effort to handle climate issues pro-actively from the top. The revamped body is to meet soon to take key policy decisions ahead of the Lima climate conference next month. Environmentalist Sunita Narain has been dropped from the body - an apparent reflection of the Centre's discomfiture with...

Despite high prices of fruits and vegetables, India's area under horticultural crops - mainly fruits, vegetables, spices and flowers - has doubled in around twenty years (between 1991-92 and 2012-13). This has resulted in increase in production of horticultural crops nearly threefold (2.8 times). A new report from the Ministry of Agriculture says that the area under horticultural crops during this period rose from 12.77 million hectares to 23.69 million...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: In a country where obesity and diabetes, on account of high intake of fatty food, is turning into an epidemic, a unique health crisis is faced by few others. Top nutritionists working at AIIMS say the fat intake among rural population continues to be significantly lower than the Recommendatory Dietary Allowance (RDA) leading to serious health issues in them. In last 20-30 years, scientists claim, the...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Climate negotiations in the run-up to the global deal in Paris next year may not to be on predictable lines. After trade, the Narendra Modi government is now contemplating a strategic shift during talks, delinking India's position from China. Unlike the past where both India and China remained on the same page while batting for developing countries, a clear view is emerging in the government that...

-The Hindu A study on over 37,000 people showed nearly 69 per cent were deficient Chennai: Vitamin D has been in the news lately and it looks like it's there to stay. A recent study conducted by a diagnostic centre on 37,010 people across five zones in the country (including Tamil Nadu) revealed that 69 per cent of those tested were vitamin D deficient, and a further 15 per cent had insufficient levels...