-The Hindu Vishwas has collected 68 varieties of the fruit, which he grows in his farm Hassan: For the last 10 years, this 34-year-old farmer has been on a collection spree, not of priceless artefacts, but of different varieties of jackfruit. K.C. Vishwas, a native of Mudigere, has collected and grown 68 varieties in his farm near Dudda in Hassan taluk. “I have travelled almost 1.7 lakh km in my vehicle just to...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: Biochemist Thuppil Venkatesh says he is not surprised by claims of food safety regulators in Uttar Pradesh and Delhi that they have detected lead, a potential toxin to humans, in Maggi noodles. For over a decade, Venkatesh, professor emeritus at St John's Medical College, Bangalore, has been trying to warn the country about what he says are dangerous levels of lead in the environment that may slip into...

-PTI Section 12-1-D of the Consumer Protection Act deals with the manner in which a complaint can be made before NCDRC. In further troubles for Nestle over Maggi issue, the government has filed a complaint on its own with the National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (NCDRC) — using a provision for the first time from the nearly three-decade-old Consumer Protection Act. Describing the alleged lapses related to food safety standards in Maggi noodles...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: The Union agriculture ministry is probing the circumstances under which a senior government scientist purportedly tried to malign vaccines used to protect livestock from foot-and-mouth disease outbreaks that can threaten India's milk yields. An expert panel from the Indian Council of Agricultural Research has told the agriculture ministry that Bhoj Raj Singh, a microbiologist at an ICAR research centre, has "caused damage" to the reputation of India's foot-and-mouth...

Due to delay in the appointment of Chief Information Commissioner, the number of pending cases at the Central Information Commission (CIC) have gone up by nearly 1/3rd during the last 9 months. As per information furnished by the website of CIC (accessed on 29 May, 2015), the number of pending cases for disposal was 29,937 as on 22 August 2014, which after 9 months increased to 39,464 as on 22 May,...