-Livemint.com All our solutions in agriculture, besides management issues, are going to come from science and technology, says Deepak Pental, innovator of GM mustard Last week, the environment ministry’s regulator, the Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee (GEAC), cleared the commercial release of genetically modified (GM) mustard, leaving it to the government to take a final call. If approved, it will be India’s first food crop developed using transgenic technology, 15 years after Bt...

-Down to Earth Will the Aayog's vision be any different than the top-down approach of its predecessor, the Planning Commission? WITH THE end of the 12th Five Year Plan on March 31, India’s 65-year tryst with five-year economic development planning has come to an end. In 2014, when the National Democratic Alliance government scrapped the Planning Commission and replaced it with the National Institute of Transforming India (NITI) Aayog, it announced...

-Livemint.com FSSAI says it has set up a scientific panel on ‘food fortification and nutrition’ to help fight malnutrition in the country New Delhi: The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) on Tuesday said it has set up a scientific panel on “food fortification and nutrition” to help fight malnutrition in the country. On 2 February, the regulator notified a draft plan to make supply of fortified food mandatory for government-supported...

-Firstpost.com Farmers’ body Jai Kisan Andolan, a movement of Swaraj Abhiyan, in association with various farmers’ organisations and unions has sought a complete overhaul of policy framework related to agriculture and all segments of rural primary production. In a first-of-such-kind effort in the country, Jai Kisan Andolan, led by Yogendra Yadav, will present an alternative budget called ‘Krishi Budget’ on 1 February—the Union Budget Day-from a public platform called ‘Kisan Sansad’ at...

-The Indian Express It distracts our attention from vital questions of institutional health and economic governance. During the second half of UPA 2, the press, with some justification, created a frenzy of anxiety over India’s future, especially its economic future. After two and a half years of the Narendra Modi government, if the same standards of concern about India’s future were brought to bear on the present government, what would the heightened...