Following allegations of plagiarism, top Indian science academies have come out with a new report on Bt brinjal, reiterating their earlier claim that the genetically modified (GM) crop is safe and fit for commercial release. A coalition of environmental groups had alleged that key parts of an earlier report prepared by the science academies were plagiarized from a pro-GM newsletter of the department of biotechnology, Mint reported on 27 September. Last week,...

With three small children to raise in a dirt-poor village in eastern India’s Bihar state, farm labourer Renu Devi is an unsung rural supermom who shuttles between home and field every day. But the demure 30-year-old mother does not forget to bring her children to the biannual Vitamin A rounds in Bagwanpur Rati, one of the villages in Vaishali district of Bihar. This is because Vitamin A deficiency is a major...

Activists, intellectuals, students and academicians gathered at Jantar Mantar earlier this week in protest against the life imprisonment sentence pronounced by a Chhattisgarh court for human rights Activist Binayak Sen. The protest was organised by the All-India Students' Association, People's Union for Civil Liberties and All-India Progressive Women's Association and several other groups and individuals as part of a nation-wide protest against the “unjust conviction” of Dr. Sen. A large number...

Public outrage at the sentencing of physician and rights Activist Binayak Sen continued on Tuesday, with philosopher Noam Chomsky, historian Romila Thapar and 80 others, including leading academics, writers and journalists, signing a joint statement condemning the “unbelievable savagery” of the sentence. Urging his immediate release as well as the early hearing of his appeal “with enlightened reason” by the higher judiciary, the statement said: “The damage done by this shocking...

Prominent lawyer Ram Jethmalani on Tuesday offered to defend rights Activist Binayak Sen, who was sentenced by a trial court to life imprisonment for sedition, in a higher judiciary. He also said he did not find it contradictory to fight the case and be a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP at the same time. “No party line says that lawyers should not appear for some people,” Mr. Jethmalani said. He said...