-The Business Standard Inflation has cooled in recent months but the next monsoon holds the key. With fear of an El Niño effect impacting it, academicians and policy makers are worried about the possible impact on farm output and food inflation. Prabhu Pingali, director of the Tata-Cornell Agriculture and Nutrition Initiative at Cornell University and former director of the agricultural and development economics division of the Food and Agriculture Organization,...

-PTI WASHINGTON: A revolutionary waterless toilet powered by the sun, developed to help some of the 2.5 billion people lacking safe and sustainable sanitation around the world, will be unveiled in India this month. Designed and built using a $7,77,000 grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the self-contained, waterless toilet with its innovative technology converts human waste to biochar, a highly porous charcoal. It aims to provide an eco-friendly solution to...

-The Times of India HYDERABAD: India's states will see more intense unpredictable freak weather in the coming days, warned climate change scientists, days after huge chunks of hail killed at least 10 people and wounded scores in Andhra Pradesh and hail storms this week destroyed cropland across Karnataka and Maharashtra. "The key word is these extreme events will increase under climate change and we near to gear up quickly to counter it...

As the challenge of global warming looms large, the importance of climate resilient agriculture (CRA) gets recognized by both scientific and farming communities. Countries like India are expected to be intensely affected by climate change since majority of the population is primarily dependent on agriculture for livelihood. CRA, encompassing adaptation and mitigation strategies and the effective use of biodiversity at all levels-genes, species and ecosystems-should, therefore, be India's response towards...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Localized air pollution, posing an environmental and health challenge, has been linked to the presence of 'heat islands' in Delhi - pockets which are significantly warmer than their surroundings. A study of these localized 'hot spots', compiled after a controversy over a Delhi versus Beijing pollution scare, revealed that vehicular congestion in conjunction with highly built-up areas is creating worrying levels of pollution, affecting a significant...