-The Indian Express Punjab’s farmers are losing interest in planting new trees, with prices halving from their peaks. Jalandhar/ Ludhiana: Sandeep Singh Randhawa grew paddy and wheat on his 65-acre land at Talwandi Lal Singh village in Gurdaspur district’s Batala tehsil. That was till the late eighties, when he first planted poplar on the edges of his field. The returns encouraged him to expand the area under these trees — each...

-IANS Guwahati: Rice is generally white in colour, or is it? Black is the colour for over 200 farmers in Assam’s Goalpara district - and they are laughing all the way to the bank. Started by a single farmer in the district about four years ago, the cultivation of black rice has caught the fancy of more and more farmers who are turning to it instead of the traditional white rice. Young farmer...

-TheWire.in The new policy is clearly informed by conservative pro-IP ideology, which big capital promotes in order to gain from current developments in science and technology. The National Intellectual Property Rights policy was approved by the cabinet on May 12, 2016 and released to the press a day later by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley. It is a “first of its kind” policy for India, covering all forms of intellectual property together in a...

-The Tribune Chandigarh: While Punjab is increasingly increasing using canal water for drinking on account of high toxicity in the ground water, it will now pump out this water for irrigation purposes. The new tubewell connections – 1.25 lakh - will not just deplete the state’s already depleted water table, but water pumped up from these tubewells pose a risk of contaminating the food grains and vegetables grown in the fields. Sources in...

-The Hindu Wells being dug in mountainous terrain of Vellie, Bhor taluks; water tankers arranged for remote hamlets. Pune: Moved by poignant stories of suffering coming from drought-hit Maharashtra’s hinterland, social outfit volunteers and IT professionals have taken the initiative to look for long-term solutions, besides arranging for water tankers to address immediate needs. A group of volunteers from Jnana Prabodhini have started digging wells in the mountainous Velhe and Bhor taluks of...