-The United Nations The number of child labourers worldwide has declined by one third since 2000, from 246 million to 168 million, the United Nations reported today, while adding that this is still not enough to achieve the goal of eliminating the worst forms of the practice by 2016. "We are moving in the right direction but progress is still too slow. If we are serious about ending the scourge of child...

-The Hindu That one-third of the food produced annually for human consumption is wasted is in itself unconscionable in a world where 870 million, or one in eight people, go hungry every day. A United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation report now says that this high volume of wastage that occurs right through the food supply chain exerts an adverse impact on land, water, biodiversity and climate change. This impact...

-The Hindu The Sonia Gandhi-led National Advisory Council (NAC) will examine whether developmental interventions and constitutional safeguards - including Fifth Schedule provisions - have come to the aid of tribal people in Left Wing Extremism (LWE)-affected districts in central India. An NAC Working Group (WG) headed by tribal expert Professor Virginius Xaxa - who also heads the Prime Minister's high level committee that is to produce a report on the...

-PTI GORAKHPUR, UP: With the death of nine children on Thursday, a total of 15 kids have succumbed to encephalitis during the past three days here. With this, the toll in the region this year due to the disease has risen to 271, health officials said. While six children died on Tuesday, nine others succumbed today, they said, adding that the victims belonged to Gorakhpur and its adjoining districts of Kushinagar, Siddharthanagar and...

-Kafila.org This fact-finding exercise was coordinated by the CENTRE FOR POLICY ANALYSIS. Team members were the human rights activist and former civil servant Harsh Mander; former Director-General of the Border Security Force, E N Rammohan; Professor Kamal Mitra Chenoy of Jawaharlal Nehru University; National Integration Council member John Dayal; senior journalist Sukumar Muralidharan and CPA Director and senior editor Seema Mustafa. Introduction and Overview The first impression of the Muzaffarnagar countryside, now green...