-The United Nations A United Nations top official today called on academics to get involved in essential research to help reduce rural poverty and assist small-scale farmers as part of the global fight against hunger. “One of the great challenges we have today is to use academic knowledge to understand and improve the life of rural populations throughout the world,” said the Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), José Graziano...

-The Hindu The Planning Commission’s perspective on universal health care causes concern Current deliberations in the Planning Commission about actualizing universal health care in the Twelfth Five Year Plan, have invited concerns. There has been a marked thrust on state-funded insurance as opposed to a genuine effort on the government’s part to rebuild public health systems, something that has been a globally time-tested system to ensure health for all. The ongoing discussions are...

-The Hindustan Times In June 1992, Manmohan Singh, then finance minister in the Government of India, delivered the Foundation Day Address of the Society for Promotion of Wastelands Development (SPWD). He spoke on the topic ‘Environment and the New Economic Policies’. In his talk, Singh urged “objective standards industry-wise for safeguarding the environment, asking industry to certify compliance with these standards, institution of an effective system of verification and industry audit...

-Live Mint Natco Pharma Ltd, which has started selling a generic version of Bayer AG’s patented cancer treatment Nexavar in India at a fraction of the price charged by the German firm, plans to use the so-called compulsory licensing route to try and win the right to copy more patented drugs, said vice-chairman and chief executive officer Rajeev Nannapaneni. The Hyderabad-based company has already identified the patented drugs for which it will...

Hearing of the petition in Supreme Court today against Patna High Court verdict acquitting all the accused A day before the hearing of the petition in the Supreme Court against the Patna High Court verdict acquitting all the accused in the Bathani Tola massacre of 1996, civil society activists on Sunday demanded justice for the victims of the massacre at a “Convention on Justice for the Bathani Tola Massacre 1996: Punish...