-FAO On the path to Rio+20, FAO calls for a future with both healthier people and healthier ecosystems Sustainable development cannot be realized unless hunger and malnutrition are eradicated, FAO said in a policy document prepared for the Rio+20 Summit to be held in June in Rio de Janeiro. "We cannot call development sustainable while this situation persists, while nearly one out of every seven men, women and children are left behind, victims...

The Conflict of Interest Bill introduced in the Rajya Sabha is a welcome step to control the grey areas in which “public private partnerships” are conducted. AMONG the many things that have proliferated in the economic boom of the brash new India is conflict of interest. So widespread, comprehensive and many-tentacled has this feature become that it is often no longer even recognised to exist, much less to be a...

A close reading of the Political Science textbook shows that it is complex, moves beyond pat answers, and treats the Constitution as a living document. It was produced in the light of the National Curriculum Framework 2005, which in itself was a major attempt to democratise education, and reverse the National Curriculum Framework 2000 which was casteist and sexist. Kumkum Roy (kumkumr@yahoo.com) is with the Centre for Historical Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru...

-The Hindu “Elimination of child labour is an article of faith to us” The Centre is committed to protecting the welfare of children, Union Minister for Labour and Employment Mallikarjun Kharge said here on Sunday. “Elimination of child labour is an article of faith and commitment to us,” he asserted. He was happy to point out that there had been a sharp decline in the number of children in the age group of...

Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar’s statement in Parliament that the Government plans to shift subsidies from chemical fertilizers to organic manures has finally earned him some admiration from grassroots organisations working with small and marginal farmers in the country’s vast dry-lands. Pawar’s statement, if translated into policy action, may go a long way in improving the condition of some of India’s poorest farmers in the rain-fed areas which account for...