-The Hindu Business Line Trade body says government should focus on boosting oilseeds output for self-sufficiency Bengaluru: As demand takes a beating and imports slump amidst a bearish price trend, the edible oil sector feels the Centre should launch the national mission on edible oilseeds to boost domestic production and achieve self-sufficiency. India depends on imports to meet about 70 per cent of its edible oil requirement, estimated at around 23 million tonnes....

-The Hindu Business Line By blocking a proposal for the IMF to issue new Special Drawing Rights, the two have denied developing countries much-needed liquidity at a time of extreme economic distress At the recent G20 and IMF-WB Spring meetings held virtually in the third week of April 2020, a proposal for the IMF to issue an additional 500 billion of Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) was blocked by the US and —...

-Down to Earth This is because agriculture in India is largely dependent on chemicals including pesticides and their usage has a huge impact on the health of humans, animals, bio-diversity and the environment Pesticides are regulated in India through the Insecticides Act, 1968 and Insecticides Rules, 1971. The experience in administering this Act over the last five decades has exposed certain gaps which spurred the need to propose a new law. The Pesticide...

-The Hindu While there are well-equipped schemes to address malnutrition, funding and policy gaps are problem areas A few months ago, the Global Hunger Index, reported that India suffers from “serious” hunger, ranked 102 out of 117 countries, and that just a tenth of children between six to 23 months are fed a minimum acceptable diet. The urgency around nutrition was reflected in the Union Finance Minister’s Budget speech, as she referred...

-Newsclick.in The Economic Survey 2019-20 indicates that the government’s broad policy direction will remain the same -- of neglecting the social sector and serving the interests of the big businesses. This year’s Economic Survey begins with emphasising the importance of wealth of nations (inspired by Adam Smith) and depicts long-term contributions of the US, China, India and various other countries in world GDP (gross domestic product). The shares of China and India...