-Economic and Political Weekly The recent Comptroller and Auditor General's report on the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board and, more broadly, on nuclear safety regulation has highlighted many serious organisational and operational flaws. The report follows on a series of earlier CAG reports that documented cost and time overruns and poor performance at a number of nuclear facilities in the country. On the whole, the CAG reports offer a powerful indictment of...

-Al Jazeera  Organic farming is the "only way to produce food" without harming the planet and people's health. Reports trying to create doubts about organic agriculture are suddenly flooding the media. There are two reasons for this. Firstly, people are fed up of the corporate assault of toxics and GMOs. Secondly, people are turning to organic agriculture and organic food as a way to end the toxic war against the earth and...

-The Telegraph The human resource development ministry plans to sponsor a certain number of Indian students for PhD and MPhil courses in leading foreign universities every year. It has asked higher education regulator University Grants Commission (UGC) to work out details such as the number of students to be sponsored and the institutions with which the arrangement would be sought. “The focus may be on Science and Technology,” a ministry source said. The...

-The Telegraph The Planning Commission has accepted a proposal by scientists to create new academic centres for cognitive science, cyber security and other fields to be shared by scholars and faculty from universities across India. The proposal for inter- university centres (IUCs) is among key initiatives in Science and Technology planned during the 12th Five-Year Plan that covers the period up to 2017, K. Kasturirangan, a member of the Planning Commission, told...

-PTI The Punjab government today inked a Memorandum of Understanding with The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) to address issues pertaining to climate change, sustainable development, conservation and optimal use of water. The MoU was signed by Principal Secretary of science, technology, environment and non-conventional energy department, Karan Avtar Singh and Director General of TERI, Dr Rajendra K Pachauri, in the presence of Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal. Appreciating the joint efforts taken...