Two walls of extremes are closing in fast on mankind. The spectre of climate change threatens agriculture, especially in developing countries where farming is dominated by smallscale farmers heavily relying on rainfall. Along with this, is the scourge of burgeoning population, which is likely swell to 9 billion in the next 40 years. According to the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO), about 14% of the 6.5-billion world population are affected by...

UPA-II's ambitious programme to make the nation slum-free within five years is all set to take off as the housing and urban poverty alleviation ministry has finalised the scheme, and how now sent it to finance ministry for approval. Last year, the government had announced the launch of Rajiv Awas Yojana (RAY) aimed at making cities slum-free, addressing the problems of slum-dwellers and urban poor in a definitive and holistic manner....

In poll time, money is the real honey. Political sources shrugged off the detention of Congress MP Rama Chandra Khuntia at Patna airport yesterday for carrying Rs 12.5 lakh cash. The sources said cash, as with most elections, has been flowing freely in spite of the strict norms of the Election Commission. The BJP, which has often been accused of using money power to “influence” elections — Karnataka being a case in point...

Commissioner of cane development and sugar director A K Monnappa regretted that the benefits of research in agriculture sector were not reaching the farmers adequately though there have been rise in research activities in recent years. Inaugurating the four-day training programme on improved cultivation of sugarcane and sugar beet for the cane development staff of sugaR factories in north Karnataka held at the University of Agricultural Sciences in Dharwad on Tuesday,...

India  has highest prevalence of underweight children under five and the level of hunger there is "alarming" as the country ranks 67, out of 84 countries, on the Global Hunger Index, a new study has found. About 40 per cent of under-five children in India, Bangladesh, Timor-Leste, and Yemen were underweight, while Afghanistan, Angola, Chad, and Somalia have the highest under -five mortality rate - 20 per cent or more, a...