-The Hindu In addition to ailments caused by poverty, salt pan workers across the country suffer from several occupational diseases, including chronic dermatitis, loss of vision and hypothyroidism In Adivasi Colony, a remote hamlet off the road from Vedaranyam to Kodikarai in Tamil Nadu, most of the adults in the 200-odd households work in salt manufacturing. They prepare salt pans manually, irrigate them with saline water which is three times saltier than...

-Press Information Bureau The official Wholesale Price Index for ‘All Commodities' (Base: 2004-05 = 100) for the month of September, 2013 rose by 1.2 percent to 179.7 (provisional) from 177.5 (provisional) for the previous month. INFLATION The annual rate of inflation, based on monthly WPI, stood at 6.46% (provisional) for the month of September, 2013 (over September, 2012) as compared to 6.10% (provisional) for the previous month and 8.07% during the corresponding month...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Agricultural GDP is likely to grow by over 5% this year thanks to the most abundant rains in nearly two decades, a government thinktank has forecast. If the prediction turns out right, it could help tame food inflation, provide a much-needed boost to rural incomes and a knock-on effect on other sectors of the economy. The demand for two-wheelers, tractors and mobiles, in particular, could rise...

-Down to Earth   This defies logic. Despite rapid economic growth, India has often been placed below sub-Saharan African countries that have very high number of malnourished children. But the government has no data to clarify its position. In the first week of September, Parliament’s Committee on Estimates criticised the government, saying: “The committee is surprised to note that in the modern era of Information and Technology, there is no recent official...

-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...