-The Economic Times Ram Kishen, 52, half-blind and half- starved, holds in his gnarled hands the reason for his hunger: a tattered card entitling him to subsidised rations that now serves as a symbol of India's biggest food heist. Kishen has had nothing from the village shop for 15 months. Yet 20 minutes' drive from Satnapur, past bone-dry fields and tiny hamlets where children with distended bellies play, a government storage facility...

-The Economic Times MUMBAI: Soaring diesel consumption by fleet owners, telecom companies to keep their towers running and malls to pamper their affluent customers is blowing up the theory that continuation of diesel subsidies is intended to help farmers and truckers in order to keep inflation low. Diesel consumption is growing at a rapid pace that is lining the pockets of the business community rather than the government's intention to help poor...

-The Hindu National Committee in Solidarity with Jaitapur Struggle writes to PM The National Committee in Solidarity with Jaitapur Struggle — a group of like minded political people opposed to setting up nuclear power projects in the country — has asked Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to cancel the proposed nuclear plant at Jaitapur. Citing concerns over the safety of the proposed nuclear reactors at Jaitapur and the financial credentials of the French company...

-The Economic Times The economic and social impact of reduction in petroleum subsidies in India will be much lower than perceived if a cash transfer system for directly subsidising vulnerable consumers is successfully implemented, studies commissioned by the Geneva-based International Institute for Sustainable Development have said. The government must, however, dismantle subsidies in a calibrated manner as vulnerable consumers will be able to adjust better if the under-recoveries are gradually eliminated, cautioned...

-The United Nations More consolidated efforts to combat the threat of climate change and counter its ripple effects on global food security are needed amid an intensifying global drought and increasing temperatures worldwide, the United Nations declared today. “Climate change is projected to increase the frequency, intensity, and duration of droughts, with impacts on many sectors, in particular food, water, and energy,” said World Meteorological Organization (WMO) Secretary-General Michel Jarraud in a...