-The Economic Times MUMBAI: The Reserve Bank of India has revised the definition of priority sector to include corporates engaged in agriculture and allied activities, and amended the limits for certain categories. In a circular issued to commercial banks on Wednesday, the RBI has clarified that loans to corporates, including companies formed by individual farmers, partnership firms and co-operatives of farmers directly engaged in agriculture and allied activities, will now be considered...

-Outlook The aim of achieving food security across the globe will become increasingly elusive unless countries take into account the planet's nature-based services into agricultural and related planning, said a report released by the United Nations Environment Programme today. Safeguarding the underlying ecological foundations that support food production, including biodiversity will be central if the world is to feed the seven billion people, climbing to over nine billion by 2050, according to...

-The United Nations Amid economic crises, climatic shocks, and high and volatile food prices in a world of plenty where nearly 870 million people still go hungry, the United Nations today marked World Food Day by highlighting agricultural cooperatives as vital weapon in the war on poverty and hunger. “Owned by their members, they can generate employment, alleviate poverty, and empower poor and marginalized groups in rural areas, especially women, to drive...

-The Times of India If you have a domestic help below the age of 14 years, then the authorities may soon visit your house and send her to school. The Supreme Court on Monday ordered the central and state governments to conduct a countrywide drive to identify children below 14 years engaged as domestic helps and send them to school to fulfill the mandate of the Right to Education Act for their...

-The Hindu Not a single case of an offending employer being sent to jail Taking note of the National Human Rights Commission report that 2,780 cases involving about one lakh bonded labourers have been registered, the Supreme Court has ordered a fresh survey by the States to find out the total number of such people still to be rescued from employers. A Bench of Justices K.S. Radhakrishnan and Dipak Misra, disposing of a...