-The Hindustan Times Mumbai: Indian companies have acquired land more than nine times the size of Delhi on foreign shores, as cultivable land at home is lost to urbanisation, industry and infrastructure projects. Land Matrix, a global land monitoring initiative that tracks land dealings worldwide, placed India among the top 10 countries that have acquired large tracts of land abroad, primarily for agriculture, in Africa and Asia. The country ranks eighth,...

-The United Nations Efficient, well-managed and sustainable food systems are essential to end hunger and malnutrition as well as protect the environment, United Nations officials stressed today, marking World Food Day. "The key to better nutrition, and ultimately to ensuring each person's right to food, lies in better food systems - smarter approaches, policies and investments encompassing the environment, people, institutions and processes by which agricultural products are produced, processed and brought...

-Press Information Bureau The official Wholesale Price Index for ‘All Commodities' (Base: 2004-05 = 100) for the month of September, 2013 rose by 1.2 percent to 179.7 (provisional) from 177.5 (provisional) for the previous month. INFLATION The annual rate of inflation, based on monthly WPI, stood at 6.46% (provisional) for the month of September, 2013 (over September, 2012) as compared to 6.10% (provisional) for the previous month and 8.07% during the corresponding month...

-The Hindustan Times   Chandigarh: Punjab expects profitable basmati crop this kharif season. The price of Indian basmati already has touched $136 (`8,500) a quintal in the international market, lifting the rate in the state as well. In just 15 days into the harvest season, premium basmati is being lifted for `3,500 a quintal. Last year, the price was about `2,200. Basmati exporters have, so far, bought about 1-lakh tonnes of the product in...

-The Hindu     Questioning a technology, especially of the kind that has serious unknowns and lacks clear social benefits, is not an attack on science Jairam Ramesh, former Environment Minister for India, made the brave decision in 2010 to tell his then apex regulator of genetically modified organisms (GEAC) that it had failed to properly use available science to determine the safety - to human health and the environment - of Bt brinjal,...