-Economic and Political Weekly The Government of India is considering a proposal to notify farming as an essential service. This is ostensibly to bring drought relief to farmers suffering from a weak monsoon - a laudable goal indeed. However, if farming is deemed an "essential service", farmers and farm workers could lose many of their political and civic rights because the government can then invoke the Essential Services Maintenance Act to...
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Women and Girls at Heart of the Blue Revolution-Lakshmi Puri
-IPS News World Water Week recently concluded in Stockholm with a special emphasis on the linkages between water and food security. From the worst drought in 56 years in the United States Midwest, to the Karnataka’s drought in India, to the protracted drought in the Sahel region of West Africa, we have also seen how in our globalised world the nexus between lack of water and food security in one corner of...
More »Plea for stalling Kudankulam nuclear power project reaches SC
-PTI The row over setting up the Kudankulam nuclear power plant in Tamil Nadu reached the Supreme Court on Monday with a petition, which sought its directions to restrain the Union government and other authorities from commissioning the controversial project. The Special Leave Petition (SLP) by social activist G Sundarrajan against the Madras high court's August 31 decision refusing to impose any restraint has claimed that non-implementation of various recommendations formulated by...
More »The era of cheap food may be over-Larry Elliott
-The Guardian A spike in prices caused by poor harvests and rising demand is an apt moment for the west to reassess the wisdom of biofuels The last decade saw the end of cheap oil, the magic growth ingredient for the global economy after the second world war. This summer's increase in maize, wheat and soya bean prices – the third spike in the past five years – suggests the era of...
More »UN calls for action to reduce health and environmental risks posed by use of chemicals
-The United Nations Governments must urgently act to reduce the health and environmental hazards posed by the increase in use of chemicals in industries worldwide, says a United Nations report launched today, which stresses that more sustainable management policies are needed to address this growing risk. Produced by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), the Global Chemicals Outlook report argues that a shift in the production, use and disposal of chemical products from...
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