-Reuters NEW delhi: A leading global charity has frozen $4 million in funding to India, squeezing aid to the poor, after a clampdown by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on donors deemed to be meddling in domestic politics that has raised concern in Washington. The government restrictions on the US-based Ford Foundation relate to a $250,000 grant to a vocal Modi critic, but a top official at the charity said the fallout has...

-The Times of India NEW delhi: The Narendra Modi government has asked all central ministries and departments to furnish data on recruitment of minorities during 2014-15, and give reasons for any decline in percentage of such recruitment. This is part of the review of the prime minister's new 15-point programme for the welfare of minorities. Though the ministries/departments were scheduled to submit such data to the department of personnel and training by...

-Livemint.com An average of $267 billion is required annually at the global level to eliminate hunger, says a report by three UN bodies New delhi: India will need to spend $74 billion, or double what it currently does, in social protection programmes, rural development and agriculture annually over the next 15 years to eradicate hunger by 2030, according to a new UN report. An average of $267 billion is required annually at...

-The Hindu Chennai had the highest proportion of ‘severe’ days based on AQI Official air quality data for the first half of this year shows that while delhi does indeed face high levels of air pollution, Kanpur, Varanasi and Chennai are worse off. Averaging across the ten pollution monitoring stations in the city, a little over a quarter of the days from January to June this year in delhi had an Air Quality...

-IANS NEW delhi: India's annual rate of inflation based on wholesale prices continued in the negative territory in June, falling further to (-)2.4 per cent from (-)2.36 per cent for the month before, official data showed on Tuesday. The annual rate of inflation, as per the official wholesale price index, stood at 5.66 per cent in the corresponding month of the previous year, according to data released by the ministry of commerce...