When Kanpur businessman Vivek Chaturvedi took up farming as a full-time occupation in 2004, he had no way of knowing that he would usher in a revolutionary farm machine six years later. Chaturvedi's innovation, an ox-driven pump, can pull up 25,000 litres of water in just an hour from depths of 150 feet without the use of electricity or fuel.

As science begins to solve the mystery of why heart attacks strike apparently healthy people without warning, Indian doctors keep in step with the new predictive theme of cardiac care.
Cardiologist Dr Ashok Seth keeps a photograph of Alok Tanwar in his office. It shows a robust young man, carefree, arms around his wife and daughters, laughing into the camera.

In politics, the dramatic always finds place in history's viewfinder. The Minister of State for Environment and Forests, Jairam Ramesh, has emerged as India's most spectacular green warrior.

When 59-year-old Kuldip Chatwal (name changed) came to Ludhiana from his home in Sweden in November 2007, little did he know what was in store for him. A seemingly innocuous urinary tract infection took him to a Ludhiana hospital. A few days later, he was shifted to a hospital in Delhi where he was operated on and developed a decubital ulcer.

The current focus is on the dwindling tiger population but here's another big cat that is coming under the gun, literally. The hill state of Uttarakhand, once a safe haven for wildlife, has lost an incredible 535 leopards in the past decade, turning it into a graveyard for the graceful animals. In the last six months, 45 leopards have been killed, and these are only the official figures.

India has 8.1 million children out of school, 41.6 per cent of its population lives below the poverty line, the maternal mortality rate is 450 per 1,00,000 live births and merely 16 per cent of its labour force has received formal education till the secondary level.

The death knell was sounded only five years ago when environmentalists found that the vulture was vanishing faster than the dodo before its extinction.

It is often said of statistics that it is the only science that enables different sets of experts using the same set of figures to draw different conclusions. So when the Naveen Patnaik Government recently presented its annual 340-page Economic Survey report in the Assembly to claim that the state's growth rate has overtaken the national average, the Opposition smirked.

Most people think there are two kinds of rice, a handful of coarse varieties and some refined versions like basmati. Wrong. There are actually thousands of indigenous varieties of rice, some of which could ensure permanent food security. Consider this.

* Besariya is a traditional rice variety of Bihar that can survive rising flood waters by growing up to 24 cm a day.

The worst of times brings out the best from a true leader, someone who, with political skill and a higher sense of national interest, turns adversity into advantage. India, a nation bruised and gasping for some fresh air, should be a challenge as well as an opportunity for such a leader. We miss him so badly, and what we have instead are seasoned ventriloquists and masters of triangulation.