1. India went through its warmest year in 2024 with the temperature being +0.65°C higher than the long-term average, India Meteorological Department (IMD) Director-General Mrutunjay Mohapatra said on Wednesday. The IMD has been maintaining the weather record since 1901 and this is so far the highest. 

Read more

2. Whatever variety that the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) releases in future will have at least one trait to address the climate change issue, Himanshu Pathak, Director General of ICAR and Secretary of Department of Agricultural Research and Education (DARE), has said.

Read more

3. Safe haven bets such as gold and silver outperformed riskier investments in equities by a significant margin last year. Both precious metals registered impressive returns of 21 per cent and 17 per cent in 2024, respectively.

Read more

4. The fertilizer industry hopes that 2025 will be a year of reform as the Fertilizer Ministry prepares to launch a pilot for direct cash transfer of subsidy in select districts, for which it is currently believed to be developing a module.

Read more

5. Guava, a tropical fruit cultivated widely across India, has an important role in the food industry. Now its seeds, which are usually discarded as waste, are being used to produce biodiesel and biomass by Coimbatore-based start-up Buyofuel.

Read more