Soon Indian consumers will have the opportunity to know whether the packaged food that they are buying contains genetically modified organisms. But will that help? In India, where a majority of food is unprocessed and non-packaged, labeling on packaged food may hardly cover the huge populations' right to choose. A gazette notification issued by the ministry of consumer affairs, food and public distribution early this month says that every food package...

-The Indian Express Tribal affairs minister’s letter to states on the Forest Rights Act highlights the problems of implementation For most observers, the Forest Rights Act (FRA) is just another “welfare” law. It is often trotted out as one of those “development measures” that ought to be implemented, but isn’t. Recently, Minister for Tribal Affairs V. Kishore Chandra Deo wrote to state governments, taking them to task for tardy implementation of the...

-AP Less than four months ago the world was cheered to learn that India had gone a full year with no new cases of polio, a landmark that left only Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nigeria on the World Health Organization's list of countries where the disease is endemic.  But the battle is far from over, judging by the WHO's latest expressions of alarm. It says that in both Nigeria and Afghanistan the number...

-The Indian Express Only the names of the patients have changed. Acute encephalitis syndrome is back in Bihar, hitting the same districts as every year, its victims once again mostly children of Mahadalit communities living in various degrees of poverty, their resistance levels lowered by malnutrition and exposure to heat. And the government response has been repetitive to the point of being ritualistic. It has asked for Central assistance and set up...

-Down to Earth Traders say Food Safety and Standards Act rolls out red carpet for multinationals The Food Safety and Standards Act (FSSA) of 2006 has not gone down well with food business operators. They say sections of the Act dealing with licensing, registration, hygiene standards, penalty provisions and powers of food safety inspectors are “draconian”. FSSA, which came into force in August last year, replaces the Prevention of Food Adulteration Act (PFA)...