-The Telegraph New Delhi: Hundreds of transgender people gathered here on Sunday to criticise the NDA government's proposed definition of their gender as too similar to the Hindu concept of Ardhanarishwara in its over-reliance on physical attributes. They demanded that self-declaration and not medical screening be the accepted mode of gender identification. The transgender community sees itself as people WHOse gender identity (self-identification as man or woman or neither or both) runs counter...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: A central scheme for skill training and jobs for rural youths has been witnessing below-target placement levels for the past five years, with the government's failure to answer key questions suggesting it is not monitoring the programme closely. Most of the training under the Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Grameen Kaushalya Yojana is provided by NGOs - WHO are paid for it - and a few state government institutes. Their...

-TheWire.in New research shows the resilience and strength of tribal food systems. Recent findings from a research conducted with the close involvement of tribal communities disprove the view that the tribal food system is inherently backward. Several of these forest-based foods have been found to be rich in nutrition. The importance of forest-based food increases during adverse weather such as frequent drought conditions. Hence, its role in fighting hunger and malnutrition is...

-The Hindu Member countries fail to reach agreement on food security right, centrality of development Buenos Aires: The December 10-13 meeting of the World Trade Organisation’s highest decision-making body in this ‘city of fair winds’ ended becalmed with the WTO’s 164 members unable to reach a consensus on substantive issues such as the food security right of developing countries and the centrality of development in multilateral trade negotiations. However, the Ministerial Conference managed...

-Firstpost.com The Financial Resolution and Deposit Insurance (FRDI) Bill proposes to create a framework for overseeing financial institutions such as banks, insurance companies, non-banking financial services (NBFC) companies and stock exchanges in case of insolvency. The 'Resolution Corporation', proposed in the draft bill, would look after the process and prevent the banks from going bankrupt. It would do this by "writing down of the liabilities", a phrase some have interpreted as a...