-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Only five states — Gujarat, Uttarakhand, Kerala, Karnataka and Assam — have implemented the amended Motor Vehicles Act nearly five weeks after the Centre notified the new law. Sources said some state transport depARTments have forwarded the proposal with revised fines to the respective governments for early notification. “The proposed notification specifying the fines and penalties needs approval of the government. We have suggested fixing the...

-The Times of India BERHAMPUR (Odisha): Visually impaired Plus II students can look forward to Braille text books, as well as literary works in Odia, from the next academic year. The Red Cross Braille Press here — the state’s only Braille press, which has been supplying text books to schools for the past 33 years — will be able to print text books for Plus II students thanks to the installation...

-The Hindu Ministries asked to submit data and ensure correctness of figures The Finance Ministry will stART its pre-Budget work from October 14 onwards, according to a circular it sent to all Ministries and DepARTments. The other Ministries will have to prepare and send their budgets, expenditure trends, and non-tax revenue estimates for 2020-21 by October 9 to the Finance Ministry. Following this, the Finance Ministry will hold separate meetings with all the...

-The Hindu Business Line The seeds regime should protect farmers’ interests, says Alliance for Sustainable and Holistic Agriculture Hyderabad: The Alliance for Sustainable and Holistic Agriculture (ASHA) has called for a seed regime that would protect the farmer’s right to breed, select, save, use, exchange, distribute and sell seeds. The regime should also encourage agro-diversity to ensure sustainable agriculture and resilience to climate change stresses. Referring to reports on the proposed amendments to...

-The Indian Express The Maha Agri Tech project attempts to mitigate agricultural risks by using data anlytics to plug gaps. Launched in January this year, the Maha Agri Tech project seeks to use technology to address various cultivation risks ranging from poor rains to pest attacks, accurately predict crop-wise and area-wise yield and eventually to use this data to inform policy decisions including pricing, warehousing and crop insurance. When farmers in...