As the World Bank and International Monetary Fund convene for their annual Spring Meetings here, soaring food prices are high on the agenda, prompting some analysts to fast-forward to 2050 and the question of how to nourish the mid-century's estimated world population of 8.9 billion people – the majority of whom will live in developing countries. "More poor people are suffering and more people could become poor because of high and...

The Centre will come up with a new National Water Policy next year that will address the issues of water scarcity, management and conservation, Union Water Resources Minister Salman Khurshid said here on Monday. The Ministry has already undertaken an exercise to review the National Water Policy of 2002, and is holding consultations with various stakeholders on the new policy, which would take on board issues relating to climate change. Addressing the...

India is trying to build a case to include agriculture in an estimated global market of $200-billion for carbon credit from the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM). "We are pressing for carbon credit from agriculture. The Planning Commission on principal accepted the idea in September 2010," NCCSD executive chairman Kirit N Shelat said on the sidelines of a national conference on agriculture and climate change organised by South Asia Forum for Environment...

The world population is estimated to reach nine billion by 2050. The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) estimates that global food production needs to increase 70 per cent by 2050 compared to average 2005-07 levels to feed the rising global population. Clearly, a large part of the consumption will happen in India and China; which would require an additional 1.6 billion hectares of land to be brought into cultivation compared to...

India's rural innovators have proved that ordinary people are indeed capable of extraordinary inventions. Despite many constraints -- lack of education and severe cash crunch -- most of them have succeeded in using technology cost-effectively to build ingenious products. A washing-cum-exercise machine, hand operated water lifting device, portable smokeless stove, automatic food making machine, solar mosquito killer, shock proof converter, a floating toilet soap are few of the products on display...