Surprisingly, the debate on the key developmental issues is quite muted this time. There was a fresh thought recently articulated by the finance minister that whether GST council framework will work for fostering inter-state consensus at the federal level on agriculture, health, and rural development. This is an interesting argument because it means state subject…
An onion farmer from Maharashtra recognised three unique features in an odd onion plant selected from a traditional variety, Fursungi: a single whorl of leaves, more layers of skin, and no splitting of the outer layer (split skin will not be mixed with the rest for storage) led to a longer shelf life, disease-resistance, and…
Now that elections are announced, there will be a shower of promises, some will be fulfilled, many will not be and not always because of bad faith. After all, if only we promise less and deliver more, the politics of performance will take over. We will not have to raise any issue that may cause…
I don’t think anybody disagrees, that start-up movement has bypassed the rural regions. Not that entrepreneurial urge is low in rural areas, but the current start-up ecosystem is incapable of reaching the creative rural communities. Why would central and state policymakers be so diffident in reaching the rural, scattered, innovative entrepreneurs? There are several reasons…
How many pulse producing regions have small dal mills to enable in situ value addition? Just by splitting, sorting and cleaning and using the pulse grain skin for poultry or animal feed, one can in many cases double the farmers’ income. And yet, as I have reminded policymakers many times, we still don’t have a…
A foot lever to lift toilet seats so that one does not have to do it with hands was an idea which industry has not recognised as yet. But it did not escape Advay Vaidya from Himachal. We have all seen dustbins which such a mechanism for decades. But logical extension of this concept to…
Should each country in the region rediscover the wheel? Why should not the policy makers learn from each other and also from the experience of Honey Bee Network over the last three decades in India and other countries. UN ESCAP in cooperation with GIAN, IIMA, SRISTI and other members of Honey Bee Network organized a…
As the summer of 2019 approaches near, we need to ask a few questions. How and what will technology and management sciences youth and school children celebrate this summer? Will they engage with the unmet social, ecological, industrial needs and try to make first such inventory to propel our scientific and technological pursuits? We propose…
A great deal is being talked about so-called zero budget farming these days. In a way, it is good that what our open source database on farmers’ cost-reducing innovations could not achieve during the last thirty years, at a large scale, it is beginning to happen. But less chemical inputs mean, more time and labour…
There are bound to be political turns and twists in a democracy and that is an essential part of the freedoms we enjoy. A time for consensual politics is ahead of us. No one ideology or political belief system can discover all the solutions for the future. To identify all thinkers and researchers with any…