-Livemint.com * Average income of farm suicide families was just Rs.3,523 per month in 2016-17, below Rs.4,561 estimated by NSSO: study * The study found that 92% of farm suicide families were not enrolled under the centre’s flagship crop insurance scheme NEW DELHI: Agricultural households are trying to cope with the suicide of an earning member of the family by borrowing more, skimping on food and even taking recourse to bonded labour, a...

-The Telegraph 'The existing system of the HRD minister chairing the panel for selecting IIT directors was a bad practice' New Delhi: A panel of educationists set up by the University Grants Commission has found flaws with the existing system of selecting academic heads of institutes of higher learning and called for a review, implying that politicians should not be part of the process. The recommendations came in a report the four-member committee,...

-Newsclick.in In an interview, the ‘father’ of India’s Green Revolution, says while technology is necessary, policies on procurement and public distribution are far more important in making agriculture economically viable and sustainable in the country. No one has played a more instrumental role in India’s self-sufficiency in food production than Dr MS Swaminathan — world-renowned agricultural scientist, known as the ‘Father of Green Revolution in India’. After getting a PhD from Cambridge...

-Frontline.in Interview with Aruna Roy. ARUNA ROY is a well-known social and political activist. A former Indian Administrative Service officer, she resigned from the IAS in 1975 and has since worked with the most oppressed in society. Aruna Roy’s observation on government service is indicative of her future concerns: “Everyone calls it an elite service; I always felt the discourse should be a bit better than what it was. I was shocked...

-The Hindu Communities are ‘far behind’ in terms of human development, says survey of 1,000 households by Professor Amartya Sen’s institute Two months after the West Bengal government denied any food scarcity as a possible cause of death of seven persons from a tribal community, a survey report has identified “food scarcity in varying degrees” in about 31% of tribal households in West Bengal. The study titled ‘An Inquiry into the world of...