OPINION

The radio and television are change agents for India. The radio when started in late 1920s was a surprise. Its access, broadcast and listening, was limited but still it made waves. It won the hearts as Calcutta (Kolkata) Radio station broadcast an early dawn music programme of Mahishasurmardini, chanting of the Devisapatshati on Mahalaya in late 1938. Suddenly radio became popular and other few stations tried to do similar programs.
The Television as Doordarshan started its initial programme in 1959 from Delhi with equipment presented by West Germany. It was a black and white wonder and was called pictorial radio. The viewership was limited and the nation wanted such pictorial coverage. But despite setting up many telecast centres mainly in state capitals, its real expansion happened many years later in 1982, when colour telecast was introduced in the country to coincide with the Asian Games which took place in Delhi during November-December 1982. 
Radio
In its early years, Radio remained confined to affluent homes as radio sets were not considered affordable. Its name Akashvani was given by Noble laureate poet RabindraNath Tagore. NetajiSubhash Chandra Bose’s Indian National Army set up the INA radio. Its broadcast of Netaji’s speech during the height of the World War II despite its limited listening was the household talk. It gave a fillip to the freedom movement. During Quit India Movement too, Usha Mehta and Dr Ram ManoharLohia operated the underground Radio.

Little over two decades after the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) began the first television service of the world in 1936, Television was introduced in India on September 15, 1959 in Delhi. It was with the help of UNESCO that it all started.  Initially programmes were broadcast twice a week for an hour a day on themes like community health, traffic, road sense citizens’ duties and rights.

In 1961 these broadcasts were expanded to include a School Educational Television (STV) project. The first major expansion of television in India began in 1972, when a second television station was opened in Bombay. This was followed by stations in Srinagar and Amritsar in 1973, and in Calcutta, Madras and Lucknow in 1975.

For the first 17 years, television broadcast spread haltingly and transmission was in black and white. By 1976, the network consisted of eight television stations covering a population of 45 million spread over 75,000 square kilometers. Faced with the difficulty of administering such an extensive television system as a part of All India Radio, the government constituted Doordarshan, the national television network, as a separate Department under the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.

The conflict in Kashmir is of hybrid kind. It’s neither a full-scale war nor a low intensity conflict. It’s a battle, where, at least as evident in the past three years, the Government is pushing for the endgame. On the other hand, the endgame would threaten the existing social, political and economic status quo, even if it has bled the Valley for past seven decades in particular and the nation in general.

This hybrid conflict has shown an ironical character. Theoretically it’s being fought to defend Kashmiriyat from the shadow Indian sovereignty. However, the battle has saving Kashmiriyat has devoured its own child and ideology. Today it’s the Indian Sovereign which has fighting tooth and nail to save Kashmiriyat from the claws of Islamisation and radicalization of Kashmiri society, which followed the liberal Sufi strand of Islam.

 According to Kashmir expert Syed Ata Hasanain, “The separatists have been projecting their cause through literature, social media, media patronage, mosque power, direct engagement and creation of structures which can be activated in minutes to respond to diverse situations. The campaign to radicalise Kashmiri society has been a deliberate ploy to empower the mosque and link Pakistan’s chosen path of radical Islam to the Valley’s new ideology.”

The breaking of grand alliance in Bihar has dealt a severe blow to Congress`s attempts to forge a broader unity among Opposition parties ahead of 2019 Lok Sabha election. Mr Kumar has drifted apart from grand alliance at a time when Congress is trying hard to forge a broader unity among Opposition parties at the national level before the election.

The Congress has played a crucial role in the formation of grand alliance in Bihar ahead of the last state Assembly election to halt BJP’s juggernaut. After the landslide victory of grand alliance in the state, Congress had pinned its hopes on formation of a Bihar-type grand alliance at the national level ahead of the next Lok Sabha election.

But on the contrary, Bihar Chief Minister and JD (U) president Nitish Kumar accepted Prime Minister Narendra Modi`s leadership when he was perceived as a potential Prime Ministerial candidate of Opposition parties in the 2019 Lok Sabha election.

The Centre on 31st July told the Supreme Court that the commercial release of GM Mustard in India has to wait for a "well-informed and well-intentioned" policy decision and that the decision would come out in September. This is very significant as Mustard is a winter staple in India and millions of farmers would be waiting for the appropriate policy decision on the part of the government. 

Brassica juncea (Indian mustard) being the most important oil seed crop of northern India is cultivated on ca. 6 million hectares and contributes approximately 5.8 million tons to the oilseed pool of India. Assam, Gujarat, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal are the major mustard producing states which is usually sown between the months of Sep-Nov. 

For pure mustard, the crop seed rate could be about 4-6 Kg/Hectare. The productivity of mustard in India is low with an average yield about 1 ton/ha with good agricultural practices (GAP). However, farmers do not usually practice GAP and so they derive a yield of only 400 kg/ha.