-The Hindustan Times Katni land acquisition row turned ugly on Tuesday (Diwali), with a woman fatally immolating herself after alleged threats from the administration to vacate her agricultural land to facilitate its acquisition for a thermal power plant in Katni district, more than 450 kilometres north east of Bhopal. The villagers reportedly staged a dharna with the woman's body refusing to cremate it until the guilty are punished and land acquisition process...

-The Times of India NAGPUR: Talodhi, a village in Chandrapur district, is emerging as a centre for 'rice breeding' in literal sense. Two retired agricultural scientists from city, a big farming family from the village, the Poshattiwars, and some local farmers have joined hands in developing new genetically pure varieties from locally available varieties. It would not be an exaggeration if Poshattiwars and their team of farmers are called 'farmer scientists' as...

-The Hindu Close to 100 scientists from across the country and several farmers groups have appealed to the Supreme Court to accept in toto the interim report of the court-appointed Technical Expert Committee (TEC) in the matter of field trials of genetically modified (GM) crops. In its interim report submitted to the court, the panel had recommended a ban on field trials of GM crops until the regulatory system was completely overhauled....

-Pratirodh.com The fanfare with which Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi launched a service delivery scheme in Rajasthan based on the Aadhaar (foundation) unique identity (UID), and celebrated the issue of the first Aadhaar number topping the 200-million mark, should make the Indian National Congress a very worried party indeed—assuming it has a good survival instinct and basic grasp of practical politics.    To put it starkly, the Congress and...

-The Economic Times The fear of drought in India has abated with late precipitation of the monsoon in September this year. However, the country continues to suffer from a drought of formalised tabulated data of agro items on a real-time or monthly basis, though many estimates continue to fatigue the print and electronic media.  Red or green prices flashing on computer screens are taken for 'granted', but the discovery of future or...