-The Hindustan Times   Where was the seventh billionth baby born on Monday? While Uttar Pradesh seems to have been the destination of choice for the new arrival into this world, the Philippines also staked a claim. Notwithsta-nding the celebrations, there are enough reasons to worry because a growing population means more pressure on the world's stretched resources. For India and its galloping population, the future is much more challenging: while we...

Ahead of next year’s assembly elections, the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government plans to revise a proposed food security law to bring it in line with a previous draft that is deemed more liberal, and expedite its execution. Congress president Sonia Gandhi, who also heads the National Advisory Council (NAC) that drafted the initial National Food Security Bill, has suggested some crucial changes to the version that was made public...

Jamshedpur, Oct. 29: For 29 years, men and women of a village in a rebel-hit block have been staying awake to guard the trees. It could have been another forest conservation legend like the Chipko Movement in the 1970s, where Himachali women embraced trees to prevent commercial felling. But here, the unique effort of Pindrasol, a village under Ghurabandha block, 84km from Jamshedpur, is a tucked-away secret in the hinterland, though...

A buzz that the world’s “seven billionth baby” will be born in Uttar Pradesh on Monday has prompted several NGOs to descend on villages of their choice near Lucknow and draw up plans to welcome some or other newborn that day with a generous dose of hoopla. One primary health centre in western Uttar Pradesh has gone a step further and predicted the baby will be born to 25-year-old Pinky Pawar,...

-PTI The government has decided to redraft the National Food Security Bill to keep an option open for supplying more than three kilograms of subsidised foodgrains to general households in case of increased output. "We have received public comments and views of state governments on the draft Food Bill. We have decided to make some changes while finalising the bill," Food Minister K V Thomas told PTI. In cases of general households' entitlement...