India is free from the deadly stem rust fungal disease in wheat which destroyed swathes of the staple foodgrain crop in Africa and other parts of the world, Parliament was informed today.   "Wheat varieties grown in India are resistant to most of the Indian races of stem rust. Several varieties are also resistant to the new race (Ug99) of stem rust as per testing carried out in Kenya and Ethiopia,"...

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon expressed deep sorrow today and offered the full support of the United Nations after a massive earthquake and subsequent tsunami struck Japan, killing dozens of people and destroying towns, villages and large swathes of infrastructure. UN agencies say they are on standby to assist in Japan and any other countries that may also be hit by tsunamis in the wake of the quake, which was one of the...

World Bank president Robert Zoellick recently listed nine measures that the G20 should adopt under its current French presidency. These range from improving information about grain stocks and developing better weather-forecasting methods to strengthening social safety nets for the poor and helping small farmers benefit from tenders from humanitarian purchasers such as the World Food Programme . These measures tackle only the symptoms of the global food system's weaknesses, leaving the...

India is unlikely to lift ban on export of wheat and non-basmati rice in the wake of high food inflation and food security concerns, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) has said in its latest report. India had suspended wheat exports in early 2007 and non basmati rice in 2008 due to high inflation in the country. "The government of India may continue to ban exports of wheat and non-basmati rice due...

This article documents and then examines the various benefits that, it is claimed, will flow from linking the Unique Identity number with the public distribution system and the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme. It filters the unfounded claims, which arise from a poor understanding of how the PDS and NREGS function, from the genuine ones. On the latter, there are several demanding conditions that need to be met in order...