Is the Government stepping back from its responsibility under the National Food Security Act (NFSA) by giving technical reasons? Civil society organizations, which struggLED to enact the Right to Food legislation, doubt that this may be the case. It has been alleged recently by several civil society activists that the Government is rolling back the Antyodaya Anna Yojana (AAY), which is meant for food security of the extremely poor households,...

-FirstPost.com The last time a comprehensive study was published on nutrition or health in India, it was back in 2007. Another study was done in 2013 and 2014 by Unicef, the UN agency for children, in collaboration with the Indian government. But the results of the study, which were to be published in October 2014, never saw light of day. At least, not in their entirety. A limited set of data on...

-Business Standard The govt's view is that the unions should be representatives of the workers who can negotiate with the management and raise issues concerning them The labour wing of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) on Monday raised concerns over the Union government's proposal to restrict the entry of outsiders into the trade unions. "The ILO convention clearly states that it should be up to the trade unions to decide about its structures...

-Down to Earth They feel that certain provisions in these agreements cater 'to the business interests of pharmaceutical monopolies', which are making medicines expensive United Nations (UN) experts have raised concern over human rights violation as a result of the ongoing Free Trade Agreement (FTA), including the US-LED Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA). The US-LED ongoing TPPA negotiation with Vietnam, Malaysia, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore and Brunei, is in the last leg. During...

-The Hindu Business Line New variant to generate electricity from cooking Greenway, a Mumbai-based start-up which produces eco-friendly and fuel-efficient biomass stoves, will build prototype units by July that can also generate 10 watt electricity from the cooking heat. Intended to be an alternative to harmful and inefficient traditional mud stoves, Greenway’s ‘smart stove’ claims 50 per cent fuel savings and 70 per cent reduction in smoke emission. It has been tested and...