-TheWire.in There is little doubt that the smaller stakeholders and businesses within India's informal economy have the most to lose, and yet their voices are not being heard. “Concluding RCEP [Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership] this year is the region’s ‘collective interest and highest priority’”, trade ministers of the proposed pact are reported to have announced after their meeting in China in early August 2019. India was interestingly not represented by trade minister Piyush...

-The Telegraph Country fails to achieve infection-control New Delhi: Gaps in immunisation have kept India out of the list of four countries announced by the World Health Organisation (WHO) on Friday as having achieved control of hepatitis-B virus infections. The WHO said Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal and Thailand have achieved hepatitis-B control with the prevalence of the disease dropping to less than one per cent among five-year old children, the criteria for control applied...

-Scroll.in/ The Third Pole Flash-flood warnings routed through NGOs are giving border villages precious lead-time to escape the wrath of suddenly rising rivers. In the last few weeks of June, a series of WhatsApp messages were sent from Bhutan to India to warn cross-border friends downstream of the Aai, Saralbhanga and Manas rivers about cloud-bursts, swollen rivers and possible flash floods affecting people in the Indian state of Assam. Although originating from officials,...

-Newsclick.in Latest data shows that insurance companies have pocketed over Rs. 10,000 crore surplus in two years. The number of farmers enrolled in the Modi government’s flagship crop insurance scheme (Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana or PMFBY) dipped further to 343 lakh in kharif (summer) crop season of 2018-19 year, according to latest information revealed at the annual Kharif Conference organised by the Agriculture Ministry in Delhi on April 25-26. When the...

-DNAIndia.com The infringement suit filed by PepsiCo against Gujarat’s potato farmers is based on legally flawed premises The infringement suit filed by PepsiCo India Holdings Pvt Ltd (PIH), Indian subsidiary of the US multinational corporation, against potato farmers in Gujarat is premised on an untenable interpretation of law on plant breeders in the country.  Yet, on the basis of a claim of an infringement of its potato variety by the accused farmers,...