-The Indian Express The Rajasthan government, too, is providing a subsidy of Rs 2500 per quintal for certified seeds, besides a 50 per cent subsidy on micronutrient and bio-pesticides. Jaipur: Farmers in Rajasthan are looking towards pulses to reap, what seems for now, a double dividend from good southwest monsoon rains as well as remunerative prices. Sowing of kharif pulses — mainly moong, moth and urad — has already been completed in 22.75...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Various drug price regulatory measures by the government helped consumers save Rs 4,988 crore over the last two years, Rajya Sabha was told on Thursday. Following approval of the pharmaceutical pricing policy in 2012, the government has capped prices of essential medicines at least three times since 2013, when the policy was first implemented by the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority through the Drugs Price Control Order...

-The Hindu Bezwada Wilson has won Magsaysay Award for his struggle against manual scavenging. Chennai: Fifty-year-old Bezwada Wilson, national convenor of the Safai Karmachari Andolan (SKA), was declared one of the six recipients of the 2016 Ramon Magsaysay Award by the Philippines-based award foundation, in Manila on Wednesday. Recognised for his efforts to eradicate manual scavenging, Mr. Wilson told The Hindu that India still had over two lakh manual scavengers who needed...

-The Hindu New Delhi: Next year, India’s annual summer monsoon forecast may be made by a supercomputer running a dynamical model. The Secretary, Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES), Madhavan Rajeevan, said the dynamical model, being tested at the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, (IITM) Pune for a decade was “ready for operational purposes next year.” A dynamical monsoon model works by simulating the weather on powerful computers and extrapolating it over particular timeframes. Though...

-The Indian Express The current bill does not take into account any of the criticism voiced against an earlier version, proposed under the UPA government in 2013; it continues to ignore the Forest Rights Act. A recent controversial bill that outlines a framework for the utilisation of compensatory afforestation funds is being strongly contested and challenged by civil society actors. It raises important questions that are fundamentally connected to forests: Whose...