-Vikalp The recently concluded Bali Ministerial marks an important milestone in the WTO negotiations. The National Food security Act, 2013 in India has brought the issue of food security and hunger within developing countries to the forefront of the negotiations in the WTO. In this context, the G-33 proposal addressing the issue of non-recognition of food security concerns of developing countries within the global trade rules reflected a meaningful unity within...

-The Telegraph Nagpur: The Maharashtra government has given a slew of private companies permission to conduct field trials of genetically modified crops at state agriculture universities' farms, rejecting its dissenting agriculture minister's suggestion for a public debate first. Before this, no Indian state had allowed field trials of GM crops since October last year, when a Supreme Court-appointed expert panel recommended a 10-year moratorium on such trials - though the court has...

-The Business Standard More than half of the households in villages in the country had no drinking water facilities within their homes in 2012 Safe drinking water, which was in the priority list of the manifestos of many political parties, is not within the reach of more than half of the total households in rural areas of India. Besides, the proportion of households not having this facility in urban areas rose slightly...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Muslim leaders urged Congress to pass the communal violence bill, putting a tough poser to the party that has failed to promulgate the legislation promised in its election manifesto. The strong pitch for the legislation, with Muzaffarnagar riots as the reason, came at an interaction organized by Congress with civil society working among minorities to elicit their views on issues to be included in the 2014...

-The Hindu Thiruvananthapuram (Kerala): The government is considering a proposal to exempt stamp duty on agricultural loans issued by commercial banks. Finance Minister K.M. Mani told a meeting of the State Level Bankers Committee (SLBC) here on Monday that a decision on the issue would be taken soon after assessing the financial implications. Pointing to the substantial share of commercial banks in primary sector credit, the last meeting of the SLBC had...