-Press note from Right to Food Campaign, Jharkhand   Etwariya Devi, a 67-year-old widow, died of hunger and exhaustion on 25 December in Sonpurwa village of Majhiaon block of Garhwa district (Jharkhand). She lived with her son Ghura Vishwakarma, daughter-in-law Usha Devi and their three children in a dilapidated kutcha house. The family has a hand-to-mouth existence and is routinely unable to access adequate nutrition. Surviving the day on only a meal...

-The Hindu Member countries fail to reach agreement on food security right, centrality of development Buenos Aires: The December 10-13 meeting of the World Trade Organisation’s highest decision-making body in this ‘city of fair winds’ ended becalmed with the WTO’s 164 members unable to reach a consensus on substantive issues such as the food security right of developing countries and the centrality of development in multilateral trade negotiations. However, the Ministerial Conference managed...

-The Financial Express Yet another WTO Ministerial Conference has ended with the 164 members of the organisation failing to agree on how to take the agenda of the organisation forward. At the end of the 11th Ministerial Conference (MC11), there should be no doubt that the WTO has lost its way. Trade ministers have failed to deliver a work programme for the WTO for the second time in a row—a first...

-The Economic Times BUENOS AIRES: India managed to protect its farmers' interests and ensure food security for its poor even as the ministerial meeting of the World Trade Organization (WTO) is unlikely to yield much progress. A series of work programmes on issues such as agriculture, domestic support, fisheries subsidies, e-commerce and services are expected, increasing the chances of some progress in next ministerial meet in 2019. "India's food security programmes are...

-The Financial Express There has been an ongoing debate over India’s stand at the WTO Ministerial Conference on the issue of public stockholding for food security purposes, including in this newspaper. There have been strong arguments on whether India’s stand is correct in the context of the subsidy phase out, in various sectors that the Modi government has been following over the past couple of years. But when this issue is...