-The Telegraph New delhi: A petition seeking a ban on 99 pesticides already outlawed or restricted in advanced nations has prompted the Supreme Court to seek responses within four weeks from the ministries of agriculture and chemical-and-fertilisers besides the Central Insecticides Board. These pesticides are killing hundreds in India and causing serious illness to thousands, the bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A.M. Khanwilkar and D.Y. Chandrachud heard on Monday. Moved...

-The Telegraph New delhi: An NGO claimed on Monday that several fast-food multinationals had set timelines abroad to eliminate from their food chain chicken exposed to unnecessary antibiotics but remain silent about their plans in India. The Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) said it had found that some global giants had eliminated or would eliminate chicken exposed to medically important antibiotics in other countries. The CSE said it had sought responses from...

-PTI WPI-based inflation in September had been the highest since April's 3.85% New delhi: Inflation at the wholesale level rose to six-month high of 3.59 per cent in October as the prices of food articles, led by onions and vegetables, rose sharply. Inflation, based on the Wholesale Price Index (WPI), was 2.60 per cent in September. In October last year, it was 1.27 per cent. Last month's inflation was the highest since April, when it...

-Hindustan Times The paddy straw is of no use to the farmer unlike the wheat straw, which is used as animal fodder. The paddy straw has high silica content that animals can’t digest. Chandigarh: The plain farming chore of burning after-harvest paddy stalks as farmers prepared their fields in Punjab and Haryana for the wheat crop never headlined so much as in the past month. The swirling smoke from the fire is blamed...

-The Indian Express Rs 3,000-cr package discussed in September but states wanted Centre to pay, which said no budget Bonn: This season’s stubble-burning in north and north-western India, believed to be largely responsible for the heavy smog over delhi, could have been avoided if the Centre and the states concerned had agreed on a formula to share the burden of a newly finalised financial incentive package to dissuade farmers from burning their...