-Hindustan Times Many of these chemicals have become extremely pervasive in our environment as a result of their widespread repeated use and, in some cases, their environmental persistence Last week, the Maharashtra government registered a police complaint against three pesticide companies and Krishi Seva Kendras (agro-input centres) for selling pesticides not recommended for the region after 32 farmers from Vidarbha died of poisoning. The agriculture department, which is responsible for educating farmers...

-Scroll.in The state’s expenditure on agriculture and irrigation has fallen since 2013-’14. In the run-up to the GujaRAT assembly elections, Chief Minister Vijay Rupani on October 16 announced that his government would offer interest free-loans to farmers who borrow up to Rs 3 lakh and pay the amount back on time. Many Opposition politics criticised this as a populist measure, aimed at garnering votes for Rupani’s BhaRATiya Janata Party. Reducing the interest...

-Scroll.in Aadhaar is depriving the most vulnerable people of their grain entitlements. Eleven-year-old Santoshi Kumari died asking for rice on September 28, eight months after her family stopped getting food RATions from the government because their RATion card was not linked to their Aadhaar, the biometrics-based 12-digit unique identification number that the Centre wants all Indian residents to have. The child’s death in Jharkhand’s Simdega district has elicited official responses that verge...

-The Asian Age The fact is that even if India was a few notches higher, it still would be among the severe cases in terms of the magnitude of malnourishment. Do we really trail North Korea and Iraq in the malnutrition stakes? There have been outbursts of anger at India being ranked 100th out 119 countries in the latest edition of the Global Hunger Index by the International Food Policy Research Institute...

-PTI An Assocham survey shows the 35-40% reduction in gifts from corpoRATe houses was in sync with low-key festivities due to slowdown concerns Lucknow: Reeling under disruptions arising out of demonetisation and goods and services tax (GST) rollout, corpoRATe India is going RATher lukewarm in Diwali gifts, slashing the budget under the head by at least 35-40%, the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (Assocham) said. A survey by industry chamber...