-Daily Pioneer Aware that convincing people, particularly in rural India, to build and use toilets in their homes, is a cumbersome task, the Centre has asked the State Governments to rope in various departments like education and health to raise awareness about the importance of sanitation in rural areas. The move aims to make the country open defecation free (ODF) by 2019. The Modi Government in its maiden budget 2014-15 had...

-The Economic Times The rationale for embedding nutrition-specific and nutrition-sensitive programmes in a development agenda is compelling. And yet, strangely, it has been ignored. Planning and implementation of such programmes require collaborative, consistent and aligned effort across multiple sectors. Currently, we have a myopic vision to pursue narrow agendas. Transformational change requires tackling one of the most obdurate challenges: malnutrition. This blight has a large human impact and a larger economic impact...

-New York Times News Service SHEOHAR (Bihar): He wore thick black eyeliner to ward off the evil eye, but Vivek, a tiny 1-year-old living in a village of mud huts and diminutive people, had nonetheless fallen victim to India's great scourge of malnutrition. His parents seemed to be doing all the right things. His mother still breast-fed him. His family had six goats, access to fresh buffalo milk and a hut filled...

-The Hindu Business Line To save cattle, farmers asked to take up its cultivation AHMEDABAD: In Gujarat, where rain deficit is increasing with every passing week, farmers are a worried lot for not just the crop but a bigger worry has emerged is about fodder availability. Considering the gravity of the situation, farmers have decided to prioritise sowing fodder over other cash crops. The State Government has asked farmers to opt for fodder...

-The Times of India COIMBATORE: The father of the Green Revolution, M S Swaminathan, on Wednesday said that it was important to focus on better yield with limited per capita land and Water resources in the future. The veteran was interacting with students of Tamil Nadu Agricultural University of which he is an alumni. Swaminathan was on his way to Kerala for treatment, when he visited the university to deliver a lecture...