Pulses occupy a central position in Indian agriculture and nutrition, serving as the primary source of dietary protein for millions while contributing substantially to soil health and sustainability. Despite India being the world?s largest producer and consumer of pulses, their productivity has remained stagnant for decades, in sharp contrast to the yield gains achieved in cereals. This article examines the major constraints responsible for low and unstable pulse yields, including dependence on rainfed agriculture, sensitivity to abiotic stresses such as drought, heat, and waterlogging, heavy losses from insect pests and diseases, and the narrow genetic base of most cultivated pulse species. Crop-specific yield limitations in chickpea, pigeonpea, mungbean, and black gram are highlighted to illustrate the diverse and complex nature of these challenges. The article further discusses how modern breeding approaches ranging from pre-breeding and wild germplasm utilization to genomics-assisted breeding, genomic selection, mutation breeding, and speed breeding are transforming pulse improvement. By integrating classical breeding with advanced genomic tools and supportive policies, it is possible to break the long-standing yield barriers in pulses and usher in a new era of climate-resilient, high-yielding, and farmer-friendly varieties. Strengthening pulse productivity is essential not only for enhancing farmer incomes but also for ensuring national nutritional security and sustainable agricultural development.

The global population is projected to approach 10 billion within the next three decades, placing unprecedented pressure on agricultural systems to deliver higher yields under increasingly unstable climatic conditions. While conventional plant breeding has produced high-yielding and nutritious crop varieties, the process remains slow, often requiring more than a decade due to long crop cycles, seasonal constraints, and extensive field evaluation. Speed breeding has emerged as a transformative strategy to overcome these bottlenecks by manipulating environmental factors such as light intensity, photoperiod, and temperature to accelerate flowering and seed development. This approach enables up to 3?9 generations per year, compared to just 1?2 under traditional breeding. Built upon advances in controlled-environment agriculture and LED lighting technology, speed breeding enhances photosynthetic efficiency and rapid generation turnover. When integrated with modern tools such as single-seed descent, doubled haploidy, marker-assisted selection, and highthroughput phenotyping, speed breeding significantly shortens breeding timelines and improves selection efficiency. As climate change intensifies and food demand rises, speed breeding offers a powerful pathway to deliver improved crop varieties faster than ever before.

Schiff bases demonstrate biological activities and are unexacting to synthesize, which makes them attractive platform for drug discovery. This article, includes synthesizing and assessing urease inhibitory activity of Schiff base metal complexes. The Schiff base ligands were synthesized by condensing ketones or aldehydes (carbonyl compound) with specified amines and thereafter coordinating them with transition-metal ions like as nickel(II), cobalt(II), copper(II), and zinc(II), followed by their spectroscopic characterization. In vitro, evaluation of Schiff base and their complexes was done using thiourea as the reference. Many of the synthesized metal complexes demonstrated marked suppression of urease activity, emphasizing their promise for pharmaceuticals. Incorporation of electron-withdrawing substituents, results in enhancement of inhibitory potency of these complexes. These outcomes indicate that Schiff base metal complexes are promising lead structures for the development of new urease inhibitors aimed at managing urease-mediated conditions, including gastric ulceration and urinary tract infections.