-The United Nations   Citing dwindling stocks and only small production increases for the majority of crops, a new United Nations report released today says world food prices are likely to remain high for the rest of this year and into 2012. The biannual Food Outlook published by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) states that the next few months will be critical in determining how the major crops will fare...

-The Indian Express   Compulsory education defeats its own purpose if isn’t sufficiently compulsory and long enough. India has been a late entrant into the community of nations that offer their children free and compulsory education up to a basic level, for a certain minimum number of years. The Right of All Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, passed in 2009, entitled every child between 6 and 14 years of...

-Express News Service   In its bid to push for the inclusion of secondary education till Class 10 under the Right To Education (RTE) Act, the HRD Ministry in its proposal to be placed before the Central Advisory Board of Education (CABE) meeting next week, has cited examples from around 85 countries ranging from the US to Djibouti and Palestine that have extended the years of compulsory education. It also talks about...

It will wait for the findings of its own study before reaching final conclusion ICMR argues that findings can't be extrapolated on Indian population A study by Jawaharlal Nehru University has found impact on male fertility A day after the World Health Organisation (WHO) warned of the possibility of mobile phone handsets causing cancer, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) said on Thursday that there was “no reason to panic” as a...

-BBC   The prices of staple foods will more than double in 20 years unless world leaders take action to reform the global food system, Oxfam has warned. By 2030, the average cost of key crops will increase by between 120% and 180%, the charity forecasts. Half of that increase will be caused by climate change, Oxfam predicts, in its report Growing a Better Future. It calls on world leaders to improve regulation of...