-The Telegraph New Delhi: A joint study by Indian and Pakistani doctors has detected abnormally high blood sugar levels in six out of 10 adults in cities, indicating a "frighteningly" higher prevalence of diabetes or its precursor, pre-diabetes, than observed before. The doctors, who screened 13,720 people aged over 20 in Chennai, Delhi and Karachi, have warned that the high incidence of pre-diabetes suggests millions more urban South Asians are likely to...

-Deccan Herald Twenty years, 35 villages and over 10 lakh surviving trees. Harshavardhan Sheelavant narrates a community initiative in Dharwad district that has converted hundreds of acres of fallow land into green orchards and transformed the lives of farmers. It was another monsoon day without rains. But the dry spell didn’t quench the spirit of residents of Belligatti village in Dharwad district who assembled near a small hillock on the outskirts of...

-Business World In the run up to Independence Day, Professor Ashok Gulati wrote a scathing critique of what he has described as “elitist biases in public policy”, that ignore the reality of the masses in rural areas. The reality he describes is that of low rates of growth in agriculture; a sector that majority of Indians still depend on.  He lamented the excessive preponderance of economic policy discourse in the country...

-Deccan Herald Contrasting fortunes: One section of Maharashtra's tillers revels, one despairs Hyderabad: Millet growing villages in four mandals of Zaheerabad of Medak district have reported no farmer suicide even as the district accounted for 30 deaths every month and the state of Telangana recorded 1,400 suicides by farmers in distress. Medak district, which reported 145 deaths this year, so far reflects the hopelessness in agriculture sector.  It is indeed amazing to see...

-DNA   A poisoned country   A few weeks ago, India entered into an agreement with the UN to end the use of the insecticide DDT by 2020. DDT had been used in agriculture for decades until it was restricted in 1989, but 6,000 tonnes of DDT are still produced annually for the eradication of mosquitoes and other pests. This would be perfectly understandable, except for the simple fact that DDT has become...