Kasmin Fernandes

Over the past few years, new development initiatives aimed at modernising agriculture like Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojana (PMKSY) aim to expand farmer incomes. Area under micro irrigation has grown 2.5 times in the last four years under PMKSY. The second cycle of the Soil Health Card (SHC) scheme is underway, which will focus on...

It only took one video of animals suffering and dying in the meat industry to convince me to go vegetarian,” says Bollywood actor Kartik Aaryan. “The kindest thing anybody can do for cows, pigs, chickens, and all animals is to stop eating them. With baby chicks perched on his hand, Pyaar Ka Punchnama star and...

“The fate of industrially farmed animals is one of the most pressing ethical questions of our time. Tens of billions of sentient beings, each with complex sensations and emotions, live and die on a production line,” says author Yuval Noah Harari in his New York Times bestseller Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind.   Choosing...

Assam’s employment opportunities are inadequate and inaccessible. Unemployment rates are increasing and economic growth is limited to the cities. Alternatives to agricultural employment are focused in major cities, fueling a prominent urban/rural economic gap. Unemployment is the root cause of increasing crime and terrorism in the Northeast. The way out is creating employment opportunities for...

India is among the first countries to mandate CSR but lacks the professional expertise, measurement methodology, rating systems to ensure apt use of the CSR money spent. Harsha Mukherjee, MD IICSR believes that a Sustainability and Social Responsibility Maturity (SSRM) model would enable the industry and NGOs to rate themselves and take corrective steps...

As SBTs (Science Based Targets) become the new norm for corporate sustainability, embracing of renewables and integration of energy efficiency is spurring new innovations, even as carbon pricing is being adopted as a mechanism to hedge future climate risk. Vendor selection based on climate mitigation actions IndusInd Bank prefers vendors that demonstrate some climate change mitigation...

While mobile phone ownership and mobile internet use have increased significantly among women, there is still a persistent gender gap. Women’s lower levels of mobile ownership and use not only reflect existing gender inequalities, but also threaten to compound them. If the mobile gender gap is not addressed, women risk being left behind as societies...

The United Nations estimates that illegal wildlife trade worldwide could be worth $8 billion to $10 billion annually. The value of the ivory trade alone contributes about $1 billion. For now, foot patrols and drone-based surveillance have not been effective at preventing poaching, and these efforts are labour-intensive and under resourced. One AI-based solution has...

40 Central Reserve Police Forces (CRPF) jawans were killed in the biggest terrorist attack in decades on the armed forces in Kashmir last Thursday. While the Bollywood and sports world is rising up in support of their families, corporate India is waking up to its social responsibility in the wake of the attacks. Infosys Foundation...

The aftermath of the Pulwama attack has united the republic of India like no other event in the past has. Celebrities and sports stars are coming to the aid of the martyrs’ families, and urging their fans to do the same. Kiren Rijiju, Minister of State for Home Affairs, has announced on Twitter that actor...

Better medical care, nutrition, and other measures can help prevent blindness or ease the suffering of those afflicted by it. Alongside these solutions, AI has the potential to make life easier for the visually impaired by providing navigational assistance via smartphone. Applications Artificial Intelligence’s computer vision capabilities can identify objects and read text, converting handwriting or...

After formally-trained Sani Warriors and the Delhi government's Period Fest and Pad Yatra, the realm of Menstrual Hygiene gets more peculiar. At least two 'marathons' believe running is an effective 'tool' for menstrual hygiene awareness: Veera Di Pad-O-Thon and Run4Niine. Last Sunday, over a thousand runners traversed 1-6 kms for the Pad–O–Thon in Mumbai. It ...