-The New Indian Express THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: While taking up farming, her family's means of support, Ramani Vengattu, a 47-year-old woman belonging to Kizhakkumbad, Kozhikode never thought that she could script success within a short period of time. At present, the lean but dynamic homemaker is a regular provider of green spinach to the Palayam vegetable market, Kozhikode. For good quality spinach leaves, the first name that comes to the mind of the natives...

-Down to Earth G Nammalvar was one of a kind, a messiah of farmers who was revered as a saint-teacher by his followers. He was an agriculture scientist, a graduate of Annamalai University, who left a government job at the research station at Kovilpatti when he realised that he could do nothing for the resource-poor farmers who depend on rains to cultivate their parched land. Thus began an odyssey of half...

-The Business Standard The food security Act's provision for millets to every household is a magic bullet to attack malnutrition The food security Act has sought to address a nutritional imbalance in the public distribution system (PDS). The Act, by providing for a kg of millet per person at Rs 1/kg, would be a big step towards filling a wide gap in nutrition caused by the popularisation of cereals at the cost of...

-Al Jazeera   The reforms promoted by Prime Minister Singh do not go far enough to help food production and the hungry. The debate on the Food Security Act is based on myths on both sides. The government is propagating the myth that it is the largest anti-poverty and anti-hunger programme ever introduced anywhere in the world. The programme is being heralded as Sonia Gandhi's dream project, and billed as a miracle solution...

-The Hindu     The much-awaited Drug (Prices Control) Order 2013 has disappointed millions of patients, as it lacks a fair formula to fix the price ceiling and leaves important drug classes out of regulation. The result: High out-of-pocket spending on medicines will continue As far as intentions go, the Drug (Prices Control) Order 2013 is aimed at making critical drugs affordable and available to the public, while preserving a rationale for manufacture by...