The Union government told the Rajya Sabha on Monday (July 31) that it has no plans to empower the National Statistical Commission (NSC) using a legislation. Minister of state for statistics and programme implementation Rao Inderjit Singh was answering a question on whether the government is planning to empower the NSC by insulating the selection process from political bias. Singh responded that said the chairman and members of the NSC are selected...

KEY TRENDS   • Oxfam India's 2023 India Supplement report on poverty and inequality in India reveals that the gap between the rich and the poor is widening. Following the pandemic in 2019, the bottom 50 per cent of the population have continued to see their wealth chipped away. By 2020, their income share was estimated to have fallen to only 13 per cent of the national income and have less than 3...

-The Hindu “It would have been better if seed production trials take place in a controlled rather than in an open environment so as to assess various risks before conducting open field trials,” read a statement by the AIPSN. Following the go-ahead for production and field testing of hybrid seeds of genetically modified (GM) mustard, All-India Peoples Science Network (AIPSN) has demanded that the open field tests, if any, be conducted with...

-PTI/NDTV.com The schools will be "technologically driven" and will be developed into Green schools, incorporating environment-friendly tools like solar panels, LED lights, nutrition gardens with natural farming, waste management. New Delhi: The 14,000 schools to be developed as PM-SHRI schools will be selected through a three-stage challenge where they will compete for support to become "exemplary" schools, according to Ministry of Education officials. The schools will be geo-tagged for the selection and monitoring,...

-TheWeek.in Efforts on to substitute wheat and paddy crops with other market-driven crops Madhya Pradesh government launched a crop diversification promotion scheme with focus on natural farming and on substituting wheat and paddy crops with other crops that are suitable for local climate and are market driven. The crop diversification scheme has been launched for three years starting the current financial year (2022-23), to encourage demand-based crop diversification, keeping in mind the economic...