-The Hindustan Times Odisha's Kalahandi district - once the cause of global embarrassment for India due to its high number of starvation deaths - today stands tall with a five-fold increase in its rice production since 1999, figures reveal. The agriculture ministry's recent crop data ranks Kalahandi among the top 25 rice producing districts of India. The three-year average of its rice production ending 2010-11 was 468,000 tonnes, compared with a three-year...

-The Guardian GDP may be an inaccurate indicator in sub-Saharan Africa, which is a concern for those who want to use statistics to help the world's poorest people Even in good financial times, development aid budgets are hardly overflowing. Government leaders and donors must make hard decisions about where to focus their limited resources. How do you decide which countries should get low-cost loans or cheaper vaccines, and which can afford to...

-Outlook Patna: BJP today asked the Centre to remove "inadequacies" in the ambitious Food bill by increasing its coverage area and fixing all foodgrains at a flat Rs 1 a kg and suggested that it should be modelled after Chhattisgarh food legislation. "The UPA government should remove inadequacies in the Food Bill by extending the benefit to larger section of population," BJP national spokesman Shahnawaz Hussain told reporters. Hailing the success...

-Tehelka While district administration of Varanasi says that the children died of tuberculosis, human rights' activists allege that the deaths were due to hunger and malnutrition  Two children from a poor family of weavers have allegedly died of starvation in Varanasi. Four-year old Mohammed Murtaza died on 9 May, while his sister Shamim Parveen (14) died the next day in the Bajardiha locality of Varanasi. Their father, Abdul Khaliq died 10...

-Down to Earth The country's 76 million poor have been denied the right to claim subsidised foodgrain under public distribution system The government has denied 76 million people in the country eligible to access public distribution system (PDS) the benefits of the food security system. For the past 20 years, the government has not cared to refresh its data and has been distributing foodgrain according to the population figure of 1991. Worse, the...