-Deccan Herald With just a little more than a year left before the nation goes to polls, the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance Government has proposed to raise the allocation for rural development to Rs 80194 crore in 2013-14, although an amount of about Rs 21371 crore is estimated to be left unspent from the fund earmarked for the sector this year. The Ministry of Rural Development is likely to leave unutilized...

-The Hindu   Death of 4 children is coming to light now One more infant has died of alleged malnutrition in Attappady here, taking the toll of such deaths to five in the past two months. Six-month-old Kaliyamma, daughter of Shelvan and Veeramma of Kadampara tribal hamlet in Sholayur grama panchayat of Attappady, who was admitted to the Kottathara Tribal Speciality Hospital on March 22, died on Friday night. Meanwhile, an ongoing survey by...

-The Hindu The Supreme Court judgment on Glivec is a blow for a patent regime with a higher threshold of inventiveness On April 1, 2013, the Supreme Court upheld the Intellectual Property Appellate Board's decision to deny patent protection to Novartis's application covering a beta crystalline form of imatinib -the medicine Novartis brands as Glivec, and which is very effective against the form of cancer known as chronic myeloid leukaemia (CML). The...

-The Hindu Jaipur: In an atmosphere where every morning, our newspapers greet us with stories of girls being tormented, raped, killed or treated like a doormat in one way or another, trust India's "village republics" to bring in some good news from time to time. One such village in southern Rajasthan's Rajsamand district is quietly practicing its own, homegrown brand of Eco-feminism and achieving spectacular results. For the last several years, Piplantri village...

-The Telegraph Dairy farmer Nivrutti Bhagwan Gaikwad, 42, wanted to take no chances with nature. A hardworking and enterprising man, he built his cattle shed scientifically in consultation with livestock experts, installing air coolers and filtered-water pipelines for his cattle, building separate compartments for the cows and the buffaloes, and erecting a fodder godown. He used high-quality cans to collect and transport the 180 litres of milk his 50 cows and buffaloes produced...