Increasingly erratic rainfall patterns related to climate change pose a major threat to food security and economic growth, water experts have said, arguing for greater investment in water storage. In a report by the International Water Management Institute (IWMI), experts said Africa and Asia were likely to be hardest hit by unpredictable rainfall, and urged policymakers and farmers to try to find ways of diversifying sources of water. The IWMI...

In Vijaypura village, marginalised women, especially widows, have used the RTI tool to procure food grains under PDS and are living a healthy life. The movement, instigated by a young RTI activist, boasts of achieving the millennium goal of reducing hunger by half in the region. It was from the state of Rajasthan that the Right to Information (RTI) movement emerged as an idea that went on to capture national...

The Centre is all set to launch a scheme of granting domestic LPG connections free of cost to the below poverty line (BPL) families. The scheme, covering around 35 lakh families every year, is likely to be launched on October 2 (Gandhi Jayanti). The initiative was taken by Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas Jitin Prasada. Now, a consumer has to pay Rs. 1,250 as security deposit for getting an...

With Congress president Sonia Gandhi seeking annuity benefits for displaced farmers who surrender their land, the Centre has begun tweaking the resettlement and rehabilitation bill. Ms Gandhi had, on Thursday, said justifiable compensation — on the lines of the Haryana package — be provided to farmers. Senior officials told ET that the Land Acquisition (Amendment) Bill and the accompanying legislation on resettlement and rehabilitation were ready, and rechristened as the...

In pushing for a greatly truncated PDS, the Food Security Bill proposed by the NAC, which has many right-to-food activists, undermines the PDS itself. ENSURING food security was the big promise of United Progressive Alliance-2. The promise to enact legislation to ensure a minimum quantity of affordable food to all poor households in the country was part of the election manifesto of the Congress party that leads the government. The 100-day...