Rising corn prices in the United States brought about by biofuel mandates have cost developing countries 6.6 billion dollars over the past six years, says a study by Global Development And Environment Institute at Tufts University (GDAE). Net Food Importing Developing Countries, among the most vulnerable to food price increases, incurred ethanol-related costs of $2.1 billion, the study concludes. (See highlights and the links below). The recent spike in world food prices...
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Release foodgrains from godowns: Bhojan Yatra activists
-The Hindu On Tuesday, Bhojan Yatra, a campaign demanding a comprehensive food security bill, reached here after travelling through Bihar, Chhattisgarh and West Bengal. In a rally, organised from Bistupur to Ram Mandir maidan, Right to Food (RTF) activists demanded that the proposed National Food Security Bill (NFSB) give universal access to food instead of capping it at 67 per cent of the population. They demanded that 8.2 crore metric tonnes of food...
More »Send all kids working as servants to school: SC -Dhananjay Mahapatra
-The Times of India If you have a domestic help below the age of 14 years, then the authorities may soon visit your house and send her to school. The Supreme Court on Monday ordered the central and state governments to conduct a countrywide drive to identify children below 14 years engaged as domestic helps and send them to school to fulfill the mandate of the Right to Education Act for their...
More »Small infections cost Indians Rs 69,000 crore a year -Pratibha Masand
-The Times of India India loses Rs 69,000 crore a year—more than twice the sum of Rs 34,488 crore it set aside for the country's health budget in 2012—to small infections. What's more, an estimated 38 crore of its citizens catch small infections with the result that they lose 162 crore workdays every year. This is the shocking finding of a recent London School of Economics study that puts a question mark...
More »UPA hopes to reap dividend from Aadhar scheme -Rajeev Deshpande
-The Times of India In a significant moment for UPA-II's plans to make cash transfers a reform motif and a pro-poor vote hook, Prime MinisterManmohan Singh and Congress chief Sonia Gandhi will hand out Aadhar number 21 crore in the Rajasthan village of Dudu on Saturday. Situated some 60-odd km from Jaipur, Dudu will be the stage for the launch of a scheme integrating benefits like rural employment guarantee, pensions and state...
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