-NDTV New Delhi: The severe drought that has gripped the countryside was no flash in the pan; when the monsoon of 2015 recorded poor rainfall, it should have set the alarm bells ringing for policymakers at least a year ago. So what exactly did the Centre do to tackle the crisis? To seek answers, NDTV filed a series of Right To Information or RTI applications in key Central ministries meant to tackle drought,...

Although public goods are meant for everyone to enable living life with human dignity, certain groups are systematically deprived to access them, says a new report from the Centre for Equity Studies -- a NGO based in Delhi. Put differently, not all sections of the society are able to access or enjoy public goods and services on an equal footing, despite social justice being one of the key provisions of...

-IANSLive.in Once relegated to the status of "orphan crops," pulses and millets are currently a subject of tremendous interest among the global community. Pulse crops, millets and a host of other local cereals, vegetables, and fruits are of vital importance to the world's poor. It is no surprise, therefore, that development agencies working in the area of agriculture -- like mine -- have moved beyond the traditional "stars" of food research -...

-BBC Up to one third of the world's food is wasted before it can be eaten. That's 1.3 billion tonnes, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. At the same time up to 793 million people don't get enough nourishment to help them live a healthy life. So, what can be done to fix these two major challenges the world is facing? In India, dabbawalas are using their world-renowned...

-Livemint.com It is not possible to provide ‘maximum governance’ with ‘minimum government’. We need ‘good government’ for ‘good governance’, says Deepak Nayyar The erstwhile Planning Commission closed down soon after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the decision on 15 August 2014. Its demise was attributable partly to the ideological belief that planning is passé in this age of markets and globalization and partly to its poor performance combined with growing irrelevance. The...