-Kafila.org The Rights of Persons with Disabilities Bill was meant to be an enactment to codify India's obligations under the UNCRPD, which it ratified without reservations. There was a Committee set up in 2009 by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, headed by Smt. Sudha Kaul, to draft a Bill to this effect. Like the UNCRPD says, the Committee included different people with disabilities - across disabilities - to draft...

-The World Bank WASHINGTON: Aquaculture - or fish farming - will provide close to two thirds of global food fish consumption by 2030 as catches from wild capture fisheries level off and demand from an emerging global middle class, especially in China, substantially increases. These are among the key findings of "Fish to 2030: Prospects for Fisheries and Aquaculture" - a collaboration between the World Bank, Food and Agriculture Organization of the...

A new report by National Academy of Agricultural Sciences (NAAS) reveals that despite the nutritional value of millets, otherwise known as coarse cereals*, there has been a drastic reduction in the area under its cultivation from 36.34 million hectares in 1955-56 to 18.6 million hectares in 2011-12 thanks to the wrong agricultural and price policies adopted by the Government (see table 1, and the links below). Based on previous National...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Months after ordering that Aadhaar cards based on unique identification number could not be linked to social welfare schemes to deprive its benefits to those without the cards, the Supreme Court on Tuesday looked at the flip-side and said it could be a useful tool to identify illegal migrants. Examining the benefits of Aadhaar cards from a national security aspect, a bench of Justices B S...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: In a remark which may cheer agriculture scientists and farmers across the country and signal a change in stance, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday said the government should not succumb to "unscientific prejudices" against genetically modified (GM) crops. Responding to anti-GM activists who have been opposed to even scientific field trials of genetically engineered crops, Singh said his government remained committed "to promoting the use...