-Down to Earth Grand old party of India renews some old promises and makes some new ones, but will Congress live up to its promises if it wins a third term? The Indian National Congress (INC) presented its manifesto for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections on Wedneday. The manifesto committee claimed the 48-page document was prepared after wide consultations by engaging millions of people, grassroots congress workers and every section of the...

-The Guardian Rice conservationist Debal Deb grapples with 'mindless Indian elite' to reintroduce genetically diverse, drought-tolerant varieties   Fifty years ago, every Indian village would probably have grown a dozen or more rice varieties that grew nowhere else. Passed down from generation to generation and family to family, there would have been a local variety for every soil and taste - rice that would grow well in droughts or deep floods, which had...

-The Times of India UDAIPUR: Despite restrictions on growing BT Cotton (Bacillus thuringiensis) in the state, mass cultivation of the crop has been reported at various tribal-dominant tehsils in Udaipur adjoining Gujarat. BT cotton is a genetically modified (GM) variety of cotton which produces an insecticide that has been restricted for cultivation in the state due to harmful effects like causing skin diseases and allergies in farmers producing it. Studies reveal that...

-The Hindu     Even a cursory look at how Uttarakhand, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand have fared will tell us how the mere formation of a smaller State is no guarantee for better lives for those groups for whom these States have been created Smaller States have been the new political mode of addressing basic issues that were otherwise left unresolved. However, fighting for a new state and reconstructing on a more sustainable democratic content...

-The Hindu Funds from Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan are pumped into ‘schools' in Bastar that don't exist On the day the Chhattisgarh government issued a statement emphasising how the Prime Minister's adviser, T.K.A. Nair, praised the efforts to educate children, 32 students of Koynapada primary school in Darbha block in Bastar district did not attend school. In fact, they could not as the school does not exist. An official confirmed that the disappearance...