Governments and people have to make choices about accepting new scientific developments into their daily lives. Many attribute high levels of objectivity and integrity to scientists, which is not true of many of them. Scientists have been known to manipulate results to their advantage. Scientific issues are often complex, there are differing views among scientists and the layman finds it difficult to decide which scientific course is harmful or beneficial....

A simple and strictly local power generation system has proved that rural Indian communities are willing and able to pay for reliable electricity.  Some seven years ago, two young men, chums from their days at boarding school, chatted over the Internet about what they might do for villages in their home state of Bihar. The company they went on to create has begun establishing small power plants driven by gases...

  KEY TRENDS  • Research studies indicate more erratic and intense monsoon rains/unseasonal rains and hailstorm, increasing risk of droughts and floods and rise in temperature including increased frequency of warm days. This leads to projected average reduction of yield by 6 percent in wheat, 4-6 percent in rice, 18 percent in maize, 2.5 percent in sorghum, 2 percent in mustard and 2.5 percent in potato. The crop yield were projected more...

KEY TRENDS    • Extreme temperature shocks reduce farmer incomes by 4.3 percent and 4.1 percent during kharif and rabi respectively, whereas extreme rainfall shocks reduce incomes by 13.7 percent and 5.5 percent *&    • It is estimated that to cover 50 percent (5 million ha) of the total acreage under rice-wheat cropping system (RWCS) in India, about 60000 Turbo Happy Seeders and 30000 super SMS fitted combines will be required; at present, there are only about 3000...