-The Hindu Business Line   Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose (The more things change the more they remain the same ): A French proverb. In its earnest to tackle rising food inflation the new Government has taken a welcome initiative to delist fruits/ vegetables including onions (FVO) from the Agricultural Produce Marketing Committee (APMC) Act, while all other measures are as usual - short term of political expediency, repeated several...

-PTI   NEW DELHI: The first consignment of onions procured from Maharashtra by government cooperative NAFED reached the city on Monday. These onions will be sold through 380 Safal outlets, said SS Yadav, commissioner, food and supplies department. In order to keep onion prices in check, LG Najeeb Jung had last week instructed National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India LIMited (NAFED) to purchase onions to build stocks. Jung had also told...

-The Indian Express   The food security act is inadequate to meeting the malnutrition challenge. Malnutrition remains one of the biggest challenges facing India. In the last large survey, the National Family Health Survey of 2005-06, about 42 per cent children under the age of five were underweight. Economic growth has failed to redress this problem. Recently released estimates from the District Level Health Survey for selected states continue to paint a dismal...

-The Telegraph   Supaul: A college graduate hailing from a farmers' family, Anil Kumar Yadav (32) roamed around in Delhi and Mumbai in search of a job only to return empty-handed, about three years ago. The very idea of getting engaged in the family's traditional vocation was "nightmarish" to him. Anil, a resident of Samda Chowk village under Basantpur block of Supaul district, around 350km northeast of Patna, today owns a spanking motorcycle,...

-The Hindu   Kolkata (West Bengal): Of the 341 blocks in the State, 81 blocks have water with more arsenic than the permissible LIMit and 49 blocks with more fluoride than the standard value. North 24 Parganas district, where about 20 blocks are affected with arsenic contamination, is the worst affected and is followed by Nadia, where 17 blocks and Murshidabad with 14 blocks where arsenic in groundwater is higher than the LIMit. Certain...