The recently notified Information Technology (Reasonable Security Practices and Procedures and Sensitive Personal Data or Information) Rules, 2011, have set the cat among the pigeons. The Rules contain everything one would expect to find in a full-blown privacy legislation, with separate provisions covering the manner in which companies collect, disclose and transfer personal data. There is widespread concern that the Rules will disrupt the way in which companies do business...

Participants at a United Nations summit today outlined a 10-year plan to support the world’s most vulnerable countries overcome poverty, calling on the private sector to play a greater role in the fight, urging wealthy nations to step up their aid commitments and demanding the elimination of many trade barriers. The Istanbul Programme of Action to spur development and economic growth was made public at the end of the Fourth UN...

The production of pulses in the country has been hit by a pest called pod borer. The common pest which attacks all pulses, chick pea, pigeon pea, gram, groundnut and lentils is a cause of worry for farmers in several states. The National Botanical Research Institute (NBRI) has developed a technology based on Beauveria bassiana, a fungus, which is effective against pod borer of chick pea and pigeon pea and...

The National Agro Foundation is on a mission to improve yield and income, especially for small farmers. Anyone planning to improve the lot of farmers in the country would do well to begin with these wise words: “Fallowness is in one's mind and not in the soil.” This was constantly uttered by C. Subramaniam, the architect of India's agricultural policies that led to the Green Revolution. While his policies and high-yielding varieties...

-ToI   The government patched together an intricate—and flawed—fertiliser system over the last 40 years. It now wants to dismantle that monster. The challenge before it is to preserve its pro-agriculture and pro-poor objective, while correcting the flaws that crept in, reports M Rajshekhar If it all goes to plan, buying or selling fertiliser will never be the same for the 120-odd companies that make up this Rs 1,00,000 crore industry or...