-The Indian Express Food safety is critical for public health as food-borne diseases affect people's well-being,strain health-care systems, and adversely impact national economies, tourism and trade How often do we ask ourselves if the food we are eating is safe? Do we know if it is free of bacteria, viruses, parASItes, chemicals, other contaminates, additives and adulterants which can cause over 200 diseases ranging from diarrhoea to cancer? Every year, diarrhoea caused...
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Empower, don’t patronise, the farmer -Maitreesh Ghatak and Parikshit Ghosh
-The Indian Express The government's attempt to amend the UPA's land acquisition law is facing stiff resistance in Parliament and outside. The Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement (LARR) Act, 2013, combined three different approaches to resolve conflict over land. One is to let money speak. It increased compensation amounts significantly. The second is to let farmers speak. Projects involving private companies had to earn the consent of 80 per cent of...
More »New AIIMS: Quantity, not quality? -Rema Nagarajan
-The Times of India It has become fashionable to announce the setting up of new AIIMS or AIIMS-like institutes in every annual union budget. After the first six were announced in 2006, finance minister Arun Jaitley announced the setting up of four more in the last budget and another six in the current one, taking the total number to 16, not counting the original one in Delhi. While announcing new AIIMS...
More »Land acquisition: First, sow the seeds of security among farmers -Abhijit Banerjee
-Hindustan Times Many years ago, Jagdish Bhagwati, a very distinguished economist long before he became one of the patron saints of the NDA, published an important paper on what he called Directly Unproductive Activities or DUP. These bore a close relation to what his friend and well-known South ASIa scholar, Anne Krueger, had called rent-seeking activities in some slightly earlier work. Both made the important point that the social cost of...
More »Homegrown veggies keep village women healthy -Snehlata Shrivastav
-The Times of India NAGPUR: Almost 50% of women in Borgaon Gondi, a tribal village in Wardha district, are anaemic. This is not because of poverty or non-availability of nutritious food. Most farmers in the village own 2-5 acres land except a few who own above 50 acres. It is sheer ignorance about what to eat and the general neglect of women and children that are the main causes. However, there is...
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