-The Times of India HYDERABAD: Organic vegetables, which have become popular in the city as a healthy alternative to pesticide-sprayed, mass-produced veggies, are now burning a hole in the pockets of consumers. Priced earlier at three times the price of regular vegetables, organic ones now cost up to 10 times the rate at rythu bazaars in the city! According to a resident of Road No 13, Banjara Hills, who was introduced to...

-The Hindu Business Line     Questions efficiency of country's food subsidy programmes  Targeting India's Food Security Programme, the US has questioned its efficiency and has said that the country should spell out MEAsures to increase the programme's effectiveness. It has also demanded that India submit all relevant statistics and documents on the programme to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in order to gain immunity against penalties in case subsidies breach specified limits. "The matter will...

-The Indian Express Raised budgets are no guarantee of improved healthcare. With a new government in the offing, all suggested agendas for health are talking of an increase in health budgets and the fact that at 1 per cent of the GDP, government spending on public health in India is one of the lowest in the world; the rest is out of pocket expenditure. The US is a prime example of the...

-The Hindu The entire spectrum of political leadership should take a pledge to transform the healthcare system of India in a decade As the countdown to the next general election begins, political parties are making multiple promises to pull in votes. All the party leaders are committing to transforming the lives of people. But health, ironically, does not feature high on their priority list, even though it is the central pillar of...

-The United Nations The United Nations agricultural agency today launched a new database which gathers under one roof previously scattered information about land cover - how much land is covered by croplands, trees, forests, or bare soils - crucial to establishing a good global understanding of the physical characteristics of the Earth's surface. "A strong understanding of our planet's land cover is essential to promoting sustainable land resources management - including agricultural...