-The Hindu Kochi: The Kerala Agricultural University has found "dangerous levels" of pesticide residue in key vegetables like cabbage, cauliflower, vegetable cowpea (achinga), amaranthus red, small red onions, tomatoes, green chillies and curry leaves, among others. The residue includes that of the banned Profenofos, which falls into the yellow category (second level of pesticides in the toxicity classification) and which has translaminar action (the toxin entering the plant system primarily by roots,...

-IPS News ROME: Thirty-eight countries were recognised for the first time on Sunday by the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organisation for cutting in half the prevalence of people suffering from undernourishment, one of three targets under the first Millennium Development Goal. Of those countries, 18 also achieved the tougher World Food Summit Goal of halving the absolute numbers of hungry people: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Cuba, Djibouti, Georgia, Ghana, Guyana, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Nicaragua, Peru,...

-Live Mint The fundamental pathology of Indian policy is the overwhelming preference for subsidies over public goods One useful way to understand a fundamental flaw in policymaking in India since 2004 is to ask a rhetorical question: why is the ruling United Progressive Alliance aggressively pushing for a law guaranteeing the right to food rather than one for the right to clean drinking water? Take a look at the numbers. A February...

-The Hindu The number of cases of burns among women is unusually higher in India with the proportion being undisputedly more in women married for less than 10 years, a latest study has shown. The pattern of burns in India is unusual in two senses. First, deaths from burning are more common among women than men, and second, burns are a well-known means of female suicide or homicide, the study suggests, describing...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Was 2012 the most dangerous year for women in the capital in the recent past? One statistic would seem to suggest so: the proportion of rapes committed by men who were strangers to the victim rose above 2% for the first time in five years to cross 10%. 'Stranger rape' of the type that occurred in Delhi on December 16 last year tends to form...