EnvironmentWest Bengal has sought Rs 1,350 crore from the ADB and World Bank backing for a Rs 4,100 crore project to protect the Indian Sundarbans, and both lenders have reportedly agreed in principle; expanding mangroves, keeping out salt water and fish-based livelihoods are part of the plan.
AgrotechVenture firm Omnivore's 2026 impact reports say its agrifood start-ups have reached 20.81 million smallholders and 61,711 rural small businesses, generating $5.64 billion in value for farmers.
Duttaphrynus phawngpui lives in leaf litter above 2,000 metres in Phawngpui National Park and, like its relatives, depends on cool, humid sky-island habitat that is shrinking.
Daily lifeAfter a restaurant charged Rs 1,050-1,100 a head for a buffet listed online at Rs 1,500 'cost for two', a Delhi consumer commission ordered it and an online booking platform to pay a diner Rs 100,000 in compensation.
HealthThe Kolkata Municipal Corporation's food safety department will inspect the pop-up food stalls of the festival season for adulterated, artificially coloured, stale and substandard food; of 3,363 samples it took in the same season last year, more than 200 were substandard.
EnvironmentIMD data to 29 September show 758.5 mm against a normal 865 mm; the northeast and south were hardest hit, while Odisha and Uttar Pradesh had more rain than normal.
CropsAn ICAR workshop at Punjab Agricultural University proposed CRM CONNECT to coordinate extension, machinery and industry as the state moves from cutting straw burning to using the 20 million tonnes of straw it produces.
FlowersAt least 150 families in Parlanka, a village in Panskura, West Bengal, farm flowers on the Kangsabati riverbank, and they grow so many roses that the place is known as the 'rose village'.
AgrotechThe US gene-editing firm and the Indian crop company will develop and license edited traits in Brassica juncea, India's main edible oilseed, where yields lag leading producers.
LivestockA side letter promised talks if India opened bulk dairy to a comparable exporter, but the EU got the same exclusions and a US deal would not qualify, exporters say.
EnvironmentThe 30-year Ganges treaty signed in 1996 expires on 12 December; India's foreign ministry spokesman said technical-level talks are going on and the matter belongs to the Joint Rivers Commission.
In a hearing on drug price control and generic prescribing, India's Supreme Court heard that a cancer drug retailers buy for Rs 2,700 carries a maximum retail price of up to Rs 27,000, and the judges called it 'carnage', Sangbad Pratidin reports.
CropsThe product pairs fluopicolide and cymoxanil for grapes, potatoes and vegetables, and ADAMA says it will also be launched in Ghana for cacao.
Ahead of the International Day of Older Persons, the mental-health rights group Anjali's Cultures of Ageing report says seeing older people only as ill or dependent hides their work, relationships and independence.
Prostate cancer makes up about 6.9 percent of male cancers in the Kolkata registry; ICMR puts India's new cases at 47,068 in 2025, up from 41,532 in 2020.
CropsAgriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan set a rabi target of 177.72 million tonnes and said opening fertiliser stocks are 47% higher than last year, with no shortage for the season.
The community medicine department of Bankura Sammilani Medical College held a camp in Patalkhuri village with eye, dental, skin and child specialists and free blood sugar, blood pressure and ECG tests.
CropsICAR-CTCRI in Thiruvananthapuram signed an agreement with Sugam Organics, which will source tubers and make fried cassava snacks without artificial colours.
AgribusinessCoal India Limited and Hindustan Urvarak & Rasayan Limited have signed an MoU to explore making ammonia and urea from domestic coal at HURL's Sindri unit in Jharkhand, to cut reliance on imported fertiliser and gas.
CropsThe Indian agrochemical firm told stock exchanges on 25 September that Fujita targets leaf, nodal and neck blast, while Wetcit Neo is a plant-oil adjuvant for better spray coverage.
Dairy company Hatsun Agro Product has launched Go-Dhan with the Odisha government and State Bank of India to help 6,000 dairy farmers in 15 districts get loans, subsidies and better herds over three years.
CropsAt the Rabi Campaign 2026 conference, India's agriculture minister announced a 'Khet Bachao Abhiyan' soil campaign from 22 October, over Rs 1,200 crore for ten states and monthly Centre-state reviews.
EnvironmentFrom 1 November 2026 to 31 January 2027, half of Delhi's office staff will work from home, non-BS-VI vehicles from outside will face entry limits and construction will be curbed, under India's winter pollution plan.
India's food regulator FSSAI has proposed rules barring imitation 'analogue' products made with vegetable oils, proteins or fats from being sold as paneer; eight states including Karnataka, Gujarat and Maharashtra already ban such sales, Indian Express Bangla reports.
CropsMaa Danteshwari Herbal Group gave free saplings to hundreds of students and about 25 farmers in Kondagaon district and promised more to those whose plants are thriving a year from now.
CropsSeasonal rain in Dhule's Sakri taluka was near normal, but it went without rain on 67 days between 1 June and 11 September; the state has declared 265 of its 358 talukas drought-hit.
AgrotechWith 76.3 million Farmer IDs and a voice chatbot answering over 9.3 million questions, the next step is advice farmers can understand, question and hand to a human expert.
VegetablesGluts sent tomatoes to ₹4 a kg against a cost of ₹6; a ₹1-lakh-crore horticulture hub with cold storage and grading in 201 clusters is due to be launched on 2 October.
CropsIndia's agriculture ministry has prohibited registration of paraquat dichloride under the Insecticides Act and cancelled all existing certificates, citing poisoning deaths, the lack of an antidote and bans in more than 70 countries.
CropsThe Indian Rice Exporters Federation wants stronger pre-shipment testing as pesticide residues and other compliance failures trigger rejections abroad; India exported 20.19 million tonnes of rice worth $12.47 billion in 2024-25.
HealthDoctors at Bardhaman Medical College Hospital in West Bengal restored sight in the right eye of a 70-year-old woman, blind in it for 16 years, with a free DSEK corneal transplant on 25 September.
EnvironmentNearly half of Ambesavali village in Maharashtra's Beed district has left to find work as drought follows the October 2025 floods; the state has declared drought in 265 of its talukas.
EnvironmentA Nature Cities study led from Oxford finds coal supplied about 76 percent of India's electricity as demand quadrupled in 2000-2020, and estimated urban PM2.5 deaths rose from 0.67 million to 0.87 million.
EnvironmentDelhi's 2026-27 winter action plan requires 2,354 targeted industries to connect continuous emission monitors and fit pollution-control devices, tightens the particulate norm to 50 mg per cubic metre and closes defaulters.
CropsAgriculture minister Javid Ahmad Dar told the assembly the region has two testing laboratories, has banned or restricted 32 highly toxic formulations and is setting up a residue lab.
HealthIndia's National Statistical Office found health and medical trips cost an average Rs 32,167, excluding treatment, and make up 38.4 percent of rural overnight trips against 16.5 percent in cities.
