-The Times of India Rice isn't the diet villain as commonly thought. In fact, two types of rice commonly consumed by India's middle classes have now been found to have the lowest Glycemic Index (GI) — the measure of its ability to raise blood sugar levels after eating -- when compared with 233 other types of rice consumed around the world. Swarna and Mahsuri's GI levels were below 55. Another favourite among...

-The Economic Times It's not just the drug regulator, where a parliamentary panel has alleged corruption, failing in its job. Drug regulation across entities that dot this broad landscape is in poor health and ineffective. In May, when a Parliamentary panel, during a routine examination of healthcare regulatory bodies, alleged corruption in the approval of new drugs, it was merely pointing out one symptom. Such symptoms pervade the entire drug regulation landscape,...

Model community forestry initiatives in Orissa are defying Forest Department efforts to control and exploit the region’s forests. ‘Heaven is a forest of miles and miles of Mohua trees / And hell is a forest of miles and miles of Mohua trees with a forest guard in it!’ Thus goes a song of the Muria Adivasis in the forests of Bastar in central India. Encapsulated in this simple expression, however, is...

-Inclusion.in There is good news. And there’s bad news. The good news first. There’s been a bumper wheat crop and the granaries are overflowing. And the bad news? Where do we begin? A lot of that grain will rot. Millions will still remain hungry. Heavily in debt and distressed, farmers are committing suicide. Food prices are soaring. There’s more… Farmers don’t have money. Their land is too small and isn’t yielding much. Fertilisers and...

-The United Nations The United Nations food standards body has agreed on new regulations, including the maximum level of melamine in liquid milk formula for babies, as part of its efforts to help protect the health of consumers, the World Health Organization (WHO) said today. Other measures adopted by the Codex Alimentarius Commission – jointly run by WHO and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) – include new food safety standards...