-The Economic Times NEW DELHI: For the beleaguered UPA government, here are some words of praise. The flagship rural employment guarantee scheme has comes in for praise from the World Bank, five years after it described the programme as "policy barrier" to economic development and poverty alleviation. The World Development Report 2014 has described the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act as a "stellar example of rural development". At the heart...

-PTI The job scheme has established the country as a model of inclusive development worldwide The government's ambitious rural job scheme MNREGA has not only unleashed a revolution in rural India but has also established the country as a model of inclusive development worldwide, says a new World Bank report. Hailing MNREGA, 'The World Development Report 2014 (WDR 2014), Risk and Opportunity -Managing Risk for Development' says the scheme illustrates how good governance and social mobilisation...

-The Business Standard Balancing duty to the poor while mitigating 'policy externalities' arising out of the food bill is India's latest challenge The government has fought all odds to get the food security bill - an entitlement programme that covers 67% of India's 1.2 billion large population under a subsidised grain regime, passed in the Parliament. But the battle now shifts to the global stage with India having to convince negotiators, particularly...

-The Hindu     Toll from foot-and-mouth disease reaches 1,485, mostly in south Karnataka Bangalore: The steep death toll among cattle from foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) could have been exacerbated by an unusually heavy rainfall this monsoon, even as an inefficient vaccination programme left thousands of animals vulnerable to the disease. While FMD (a viral infection affecting animals with ‘cloven hooves' such as cattle, deer and wild boar) is not fatal by itself, a secondary infection...

-The United Nations The global supply of cereal this year will surpass the 2012 level by nearly eight per cent, the United Nations food agency reported today, as it also announced a drop in global food prices for the fifth consecutive month. In its Crop Prospects and Food Situation report, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said the increase is mainly the result of an 11 per cent anticipated expansion in coarse...