-The Hindu Business Line New Delhi: According to the Data released by the Agriculture Ministry on Friday, the total area under Kharif crops stands at 61.27 lakh hectares (lh) – about 5.4 per cent lower than during the corresponding period the previous year when it touched 64.75 lh. Reports from States indicated that rice sowing and transplanting had taken place in 3.46 lh for 2015-16 kharif season, 13.4 per cent higher than...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: Successive Indian governments have ignored repeated alerts and done little to introduce laws to curb practices that could explain how lead could slip into noodles and other raw and processed food, analysts say. India introduced unleaded petrol in March 2000 but the governments since then have not moved enough to impose mandatory limits for lead in paints which remain a key source of environmental lead pollution in the...

-Outlook Pulses are falling off the poor man’s plate. Price rise may hit the middle class next. Pulses—all-important as a source of protein—are set to be spoilers this year in the government’s endeavour to keep a check on food inflation. Already, over the last nine months, the prices of some pulses have jumped 64 per cent in major cities. This is because of below-normal monsoon last year, compounded by untimely rain and...

-The Times of India BENGALURU: The prestigious Oxford University last week announced that professor Louise Richardson, subject to approval, could go on to become the university's first woman vice-chancellor in its 800-year history. Down in India, things are not too different. Multiple studies reveal the percentage of women vice-chancellors in India is at a shocking 3%, with just 13 universities of the 431 a UGC study surveyed, having women running a university....

-The Hindu ‘Its geographical distribution is what matters’ Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said here on Thursday that concerns about the impact of a deficient monsoon on the economy were “misplaced” and “far-fetched”. He told presspersons that conclusions were being made in an exaggerated manner after the India Meteorological Department forecast on Tuesday that rainfall would be only 88 per cent of the long-term average. “The speculation and analyses we have seen in the...