-The United Nations   The United Nations agencies working to combat hunger today called for action to ensure long-term food security as a new report shows that high food prices are likely to continue and possible increase over the next decade. “The State of Food Insecurity in the World 2011,” an annual flagship report which the three Rome-based agencies jointly produced this year, states that small, import-dependent countries, particularly in Africa, are especially...

The Planning Commission’s poverty line affidavit has exposed how blissfully ignorant the glorified economists of the UPA are of the true reality of India The 2G spectrum scam, Commonwealth Games loot, cash-for-vote bribery, Lokpal fiasco, Pranab-Chidambaram duel on the Finance Ministry note, and the count goes on. It seems the UPA-II is stuck in a rut.  As if the battering by the united Opposition and hauling over the coals by civil...

-The Hindu Business Line   Input subsidy expenses not contributing to boost productivity The World Bank has said that South Asia's foodgrain stock management, especially in India, needs to improve to tackle inflation. In its focus on food inflation in South Asia, the bank said that high stocks have led to high wastage due to inadequate storage capacity and technology. According to World Bank's estimates, the Food Corporation of India lost 10-16 million tonnes...

More than 2.5 million Americans fell into poverty last year, bringing the total number to its highest in 52 years. After touring food banks across Tennessee, Marcia Wells was not surprised by the latest statistics showing that more Americans are living in poverty today than at any time since the Census Bureau began first publishing the number 52 years ago. In the US, 2.6 million people fell into poverty last year, the...

-The Hindu   India ranks very high among the nations struck by the rising wave of “premature deaths” caused by non-communicable diseases, mainly heart and blood ailments, the WHO said in its latest report on Wednesday. The report said that cardiovascular diseases, cancer, chronic respiratory problems, blood pressure and diabetes are an offshoot of growing affluence of the middle classes as well as worsening health conditions among people below poverty line. “Exposure to the...