-The Hindu The U.S. special supplement scheme for women, infants and children to prevent undernutrition is a model that India can learn from India’s economic growth over the last 15 years, and the growing size of the middle class, have become a source of attraction for international investors, especially in the retail food industry. However, the gap between the rich and the poor has only widened: nearly 40 per cent of the...

-Outlook Don’t blame globalization for inequality – but rather policies hijacked by a few Economic globalization in the sense of expansion of foreign trade and investment is, of course, somewhat anaemic, reflecting the impact of global recession, although still vigorous in the sense of continuous international transmission of technology, information, ideas and social media. But in the world of politics and policymaking a cold wind is blowing, dimming earlier enthusiasm for global...

-The Indian Express The Doha climate talks must extract tangible action plans from all countries Delegates from more than 190 countries have met at Doha for the 18th session of the Conference of Parties (COP) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the 8th session of COP, serving as Meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol. To build on the aspirations of last year’s Durban climate summit,...

-The Business Standard Govt pushes biofuels again, despite bitter experience The nearly decade-old programme to promote ethanol-blended petrol has failed to make much headway despite continued attempts by the government to get it going. The latest such attempt was last week, when the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) made the very poor decision to force oil marketing companies to mix five per cent ethanol with petrol throughout the country from...

-PTI The Punjab government is likely to roll out the state’s first agriculture policy by mid-December, aimed to make farming profession economically viable by suggesting measures to raise farmers’ dwindling income and promote crop diversification. “The farm is expected to come out by mid-December. The draft of the agriculture policy is ready and it has been circulated among experts of different fields to elicit their views and opinions so as to incorporate...