-The Telegraph A one-stop web-enabled solution for silk farmers of the country was launched today. SILKS (Sericulture, Information Linkages and Knowledge System) was inaugurated by Ishita Roy, member secretary of Central Silk Board, Bangalore, today through video conferencing. It is expected to go a long way in addressing the needs and problems of silk farmers in the country. “This should be used as a tool for decision making and states should start working on...

-PTI A group of persons on Saturday ransacked the office of Prof. Suhas Palshikar, who resigned as National Council Of Educational Research And Training (NCERT) adviser in the wake of the row over cartoon of B.R. Ambedkar in school text books. Police said the persons involved in the incident had been invited by Prof. Palshikar for discussion in his office after they raised objections on the cartoon. They later damaged furniture in his...

MPs join hands to attack ‘derogatory’ cartoon on Ambedkar Two eminent scholars have resigned their positions as advisers to the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) after a furore in Parliament led Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal to withdraw a book on the Constitution because it contained a cartoon some legislators said was offensive. Yogendra Yadav and Suhas Palshikar, both eminent political scientists, resigned hours after the cartoon provoked...

The Government of India has formally launched the news Guidelines of the MGNAREGA based on the Mihir Shah Committee report. The news guidelines include many new works under conservation activities and it strengthens the hands of the village panchayats and gram sabhas. However, the list of works does not include the activities under the system of rice intensification (SRI) which encourages scientific method of paddy cultivation with better yield in...

Just in case our friends in the media were looking for more evidence, a new ILO report clinches the connection between old age pension and a country’s well being. The ILO report “World Social Security Report 2010/11: Providing coverage in times of crisis and beyond” puts India’s social security coverage in perspective of its peers. (the report can be accessed at http://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---dgreports/---dcomm/---publ/documents/publication/wcms_146566.pdf.  India is not only nearly at the bottom...