-The United Nations Higher demand for food due to population growth, urban migration and other factors will require countries to increase their productivity, according to a new report co-authored by the United Nations, which warns that without more supplies, prices will rise significantly. “Higher demand will be met increasingly by supplies that come to market at higher cost. With farmland area expected to expand only slightly in the coming decade, additional production...

-The Economic Times A social activist has filed a case in the Delhi High Court alleging that the US-based Walmart is carrying retailing to the end consumer through Bharti Retail, a Bharti Enterprises group company.  The high court has sent notices to Bharti Walmart, Bharti Retail as well as the central government, seeking their replies on the petition filed by environmental activist Vandana Shiva. Bharti Walmart is a 50:50 wholesale retail joint...

-The Telegraph environmental activists have criticized the outcome of the recently concluded Rio+20 summit as insubstantial. They are not wrong, but they have missed the main point. There was a very real danger that, far from registering progress, the summit would actually mark a giant step backwards for sustainable development. Rich and powerful countries made a concerted attempt to actually undo and reverse the advances that were achieved 20 years ago...

-The Times of India   The Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed that the government had reasons to doubt its verdict laying down auction as the only way of allocating natural resources, in what is seen as an indication of a significant judicial rethink.  "On cancellation of spectrum licences allotted without following a transparent system, there is no doubt about its correctness. But if one reads the judgment to mean that auction must be...

-The Hindustan Times There is good news for the Himachal Pradesh Power Corporation Ltd (HPPCL), the executing agency of the Renuka dam project, with the National Green Tribunal giving a green signal to the acquisition of land for the project. Vacating an interim stay ordered by it on July 28 last year on the land acquisition for the Rs 3,600-crore Renuka dam project, the tribunal has allowed the HPPCL to consider...