-The Economic Times NEW DELHI: Large numbers of poor and vulnerable are exposed to risks and unexpected difficulties like unemployment, ill health, and natural disasters, an Asian Development Bank ( ADB) study says, because of lack of adequate social protection systems in many fast-growing middle-income countries in Asia and the Pacific. The Social Protection Index: Assessing Results for Asia and the Pacific-released on Wednesday gives India a score of 0.051, below most...

-The Hindu The outlets in the city's immediate southern suburbs and one in Porur boast of a huge price difference of locally-available vegetables compared to those in other markets Chennai: Residents cutting across the social and economic spectrum flocked to the farm-fresh consumer outlets in the city's suburbs on Thursday, soon after their inauguration earlier in the day. Chief Minister Jayalalithaa launched 31 ‘Pannai Pasumai Nugarvor Kootturavu Kadai' through video-conferencing from the Secretariat....

-The Hindu Developing and emerging economies may not exactly be dazzling in the current overall grim global economic climate of joblessness and sluggish growth. But the region has registered rising employment and narrowing income inequalities, relative to their rich counterparts, since the 2007-08 meltdown, says the International Labour Organisation's World of Work Report 2013. The backbone of this promising story are the Middle Income Groups in these countries, which have...

-The Hindu Malnutrition is responsible for nearly 45 per cent of deaths in children under-five, according to new research report published as part of The Lancet Series on maternal and child nutrition. The research shows that malnutrition is responsible for around 3.1 million deaths in children under five annually. Results estimate that stunting (reduced growth) affected at least 165 million children worldwide in 2011 while at least 52 million children were affected...

-AFP ROME: The UN's food agency on Tuesday said obesity and poor nutrition weigh heavily on the global economy and told governments that investing in food health would bring big economic as well as social returns. Lost productivity and spiralling health care bills linked to malnutrition "could account for as much as five per cent of global gross domestic product (GDP)," equivalent to $3.5 trillion (2.6 trillion euros) a year, the Food...