-The Guardian A report highlights conditions of modern slavery in Indian mills, and the abused workers should have recourse to UK courts Eighteen months ago the Rana Plaza building in Bangladesh collapsed, killing more than 1,100 garment workers, and prompting global shock and outrage. Companies responded by promising to improve their act: more than 150 international retailers signed up to the Bangladesh accord on fire and building safety, a legally binding...

-IANS West Bengal: In a bid to preserve indigenous rice varieties of India, the West Bengal government has proposed setting up a rice museum to showcase 'folk' varieties of rice, a scientist said Wednesday. Proposed to be set up at the Agricultural Training Centre at Fulia in the state's Nadia district, the unique repository will display over 300 samples. "In the institute's bio-diversity conservation farm, we are maintaining, growing, distributing and characterising over...

-Tehelka Despite the serious toll it takes on women's health, female sterilisation remains the most prevalent form of contraception in India. While memories of the 21 months of Emergency in 1975-77, imposed by the then prime minister Indira Gandhi, survives even today in the minds of Indian men as the fear of forced sterilisation, the country's population control policies have shifted over the years since then to target the politically less...

-The Hindu The world cannot afford to talk about hunger without addressing climate change, food production without sustainability or growth without good nutrition With the world's population predicted to reach 9 billion by 2050, we collectively face a dual challenge: ensuring that everyone will have access to affordable, nutritious food without decimating the earth's natural resources in the process. This is easier said than done. Our current food system is dysfunctional both...

-The Hindu Business Line   Anonymity can protect unpopular individuals from retaliation - and their ideas from suppression - at the hand of an intolerant society The Supreme Court of India has, thankfully, decided to reconsider an earlier order calling for revealing the identity of the whistle-blower while hearing a petition alleging gross misconduct against the Director of the country's foremost police agency, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). On September 15, a...