-Livemint.com The government should put greater emphasis on behaviour change than construction of toilets In 2014, more than half of India’s population still practised open defecation. Prime Minister Narendra Modi set his government the goal of making the country open defecation-free in five years, by the 150th anniversary of M.K. Gandhi’s birthday in 2019, by launching the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan (SBA). Three years later, we are more than halfway into that period,...

-Livemint.com National Institute of Nutrition report says long hours in office, eating unhealthy food, drinking carbonated beverages, getting little time for exercise makes India unhealthy New Delhi: Glued to the chair for long hours in office, eating unhealthy food, drinking carbonated beverages and getting little time for exercise! That’s the picture of young employees in urban India presented by a report by the National Institute of Nutrition (NIN). The report by NIN,...

-The Hindu Linking agricultural and nutritional outcomes is crucial The world’s population is booming. According to estimates, the global population is likely to exceed 9 billion by 2050, with 5 billion people in Asia alone. The capacity to produce enough quality food is falling behind human numbers. Food production in the region must keep pace, even as environment sustainability and economic development are ensured. The answer to these challenges lies in research...

-The Hindu Over the years we have lost over a lakh varieties of native rice. One district in Odisha is rediscovering some of them It is a balmy winter morning when I meet Kamli Bataraa, an ebullient Adivasi farmer, at her home in Belugan, in southern Odisha’s Koraput district. There is a hum across the village from the threshing of just-harvested paddy. When I ask Kamli about the rice varieties she grows,...

-Livemint.com While investment demand was anyway weak when the NDA came to power in 2014, private consumption has also started decelerating due to demonetisation New Delhi: The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) won a landslide in the 2014 general election with the promise of fast-tracking economic growth and creating jobs. It replaced the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government that was mired in corruption scandals and had mismanaged the economy. Three years on,...